Alec Saunders tells that Truephone now supports Google Talk and Gigaom is very excited as well. It seems to be very important today to have the name “Google” in ones press releases. Interoperability with GTalk is not such a great thing to me.
Maybe the “GigaTeam is happy about the news as they spend a lot of time using the Google service”. But my contacts are all using Skype. Why is it still impossible to do a hosted-Skype-to-SIP?
Why cannot truphone install in their servers a bridge to Skype if the Truphone users give them their Skype logins?
Much more interesting to me would be to have my Skype contacts appear in my Truphone than see my Truphone contacts in my GTalk, which I nearly don’t use anyway.
At the VON Europe in Berlin we alread saw several companies that do the bridging from different voice services to GTalk. This seems trivial to me since Google uses standards that make this easily possible.
But what was really ridiculous at VON Europe where the bridges to Skype. I saw a company that requires you to have your PC switched on all time and then call it from your mobile phone to contact your Skype contacts. This requires far to much energy consumption and phone costs. There have to be hosted all IP solutions!
I think a bridge to Skype is much more needed than a bridge to GTalk. And I think that it can be done if your clients give you their Skype logins. People with few trust could open special Skype accounts for that.
AND TALKING ABOUT WIFI PHONES:
I am actually writing an article about Truephone and other companies that try to bring down the prices for mobile communication. For that reason I also talked to the CEO of one of those “hot VoIP companies” that are being covered at Gigaom, and it was a desaster. He talked on a Wifi phone (Nokia N80 ie) and half of his words were lost. The interview was impossible and I had to call him again on his fixed number. He mumbled something about “bad Wifi in this building” and “Wifi calls are worse when a tram passes outside the building”.
Is this Quality of Service?
Hi Markus,
ReplyDeleteOF COURSE a Truphone to Skype would be useful. I agree with you and I would use it immediately. As you point out, though, until Skype opens their protocol, that will require you to provide your password. Inconvenient and kludgy.