Are We Too Dependent on Skype?
August 20th, 2007 | Categories: VOIP, blogs, chat, networks, off topic, social media
Skype goes down. The world stops. A gazillion blogs post about the outage. Boo hoo. Life goes on…
The majority of Skype users don’t even pay for the service, so it’s pretty hard to point the finger at a company who doesn’t receive compensation from the majority of its users.
In reality, we use Skype because it facilitates our lives and/or saves us loads of money. We should be thanking them. But a greedy few choose not to address this.
On the other side, however, I do feel some sympathy for those who pay to use premium Skype services. They are customers. Such a lengthy outage is inexcusable. If I were a paying customer, I’d be pissed off too.
Another point to note is that Skype is used extensively as a conferencing tool by many small companies and start-ups. These companies live and die by the service. It is very common to see an executive meeting scheduled around a Skype conference call. This free alternative is great, but a paid service offers more reliability and support should a mishap present itself. The companies that use Skype’s free conferencing service have no right to be upset if the service goes down, unless of course they are paying customers.
One thing is for certain: even if Skype does go down for a couple days or even a week, people won’t switch to an alternative service. Why? Because all their friends still use Skype. They would have to presuade their entire contact list to switch over to achieve maximum value. Is this going to happen? Not likely.
I guess what I am trying to say is that if you aren’t willing to pay, you can’t expect a perfect service.
Are we too dependent on free services like Skype? Is an outage acceptable to a user who doesn’t pay? Is it OK to demand a lot from a free service?
August 20th, 2007 at 3:00 am
If you’re not paying for Skype, then you can’t really complain too loudly when service goes of-line for a few hours.
August 20th, 2007 at 4:08 am
[…] In asking whether the kerfuffle over the Skype outage means many people have become too dependent on it, Aiden Henry ends his post with a provocative question: “Are we too dependent on free services like Skype?”. […]
August 20th, 2007 at 8:55 am
I don’t know anyone who depends on skype. I pay for it, and the outage didn’t really affect me.
I use it for business, voicemail, international calls. If anyone relies on it, it would be me and I don’t see the outage as a big deal in the least.
August 20th, 2007 at 9:21 am
Too many people are trying to live in a ‘virtual world’. Eventually we need to be face to face, just ask all those corporations who invested in Second Life if they got the business return they expected.
August 20th, 2007 at 12:58 pm
I use Skype all the time and now I use it along with Yugma! Have you seen this product! Free too! Free calls with free web conferencing…you can’t bet it!
Ann
August 21st, 2007 at 7:12 am
Dude I just use my cell phone.
April 6th, 2010 at 7:58 am
Thanks for writting very informative VoIP article. Please let me elaborate more on VoIP. Voice over Internet Protocol has been around since many years. But due to lack of sufficient and affordable bandwidth it was not possible to carry carrier grade voice over Internet Protocol. But since the arrival of low cost internet bandwidth and new speech codecs such as G.729, G.723 which utilizes very low payload to carry carrier class voice it has recently been possible to leverage the true benefits of VoIP. G.723 codec utilizes only 6 Kbps (Kilo Bytes/sec) which is capable of maintaining a constant stream of data between peers and deliver carrier grade voice quality. Lets put this way if you have 8 Mbps internet connection, by using G.723 codec you can run upto 100 telephone lines with crystal clear and carrier grade voice quality. I am also a user of VoIP and have setup a small PBX at home. Since I have discovered VoIP I have never used traditional PSTN service.
Dear readers, if you have not yet tried VoIP I suggest that you try VoIP technology and I bet you will never want to use the traditional PSTN phone service ever again. VoIP has far more superior features to offer which traditional PSTN sadly cannot offer.
Also It has recently been possile to carry Video alongwith VoIP by using low payload video codecs. I cannot resist to tell you that by using T.38 passthrough and disabling VAD VoIP can carry FAX transmission, but beaware FAX T.38 passthrough will only work when using wide band protocols such as G.711, a-Law and u-Law.
By using ATA (Analog Telephone Adapter) which converts VoIP signals into traditional PSTN you can also using Dial-up modems to connect to various dialup services. I wont go in to the details what VoIP can offer, to cut my story short VoIP is a must to have product for every business and individual.
How VoIP Works
When we make a VoIP call, a communication channel is established between caller and called party over IP (Internet Protocol) which runs on top of computer data networks. A telephony conversation that takes place over VoIP are converted into binary data packets streams in real time and transmitted over data network, when these data packets arrive at the destination these are again converted into standard telephony conversation. This whole process of voice conversion into data, transmission and data conversion into back voice conversation takes place within less than few milliseconds. That is how a VoIP is call is transmitted over data networks. I hope that now you understand basics of how a VoIP call takes place.
What are speech codec’s and what role codec plays in VoIP?
Speech codec play a vital role in VoIP and codec determines the quality and cost of the call. Let me explain you what exactly VoIP codec’s are and how they work. You may have heard about data compression, or probably you have heard about air compressor which compresses a volume of air in enclosed container, VoIP codec’s are no different than a air compressor. Speech codec’s compresses voice into data packets and decompresses it upon arrival at destination. Some VoIP codec’s can compress huge amount of voice while maintaining QoS which means use this type of codec will cost less because it will consume just a fraction of data network. Some codec’s are just not capable of encoding huge amount of voice they simply consume huge amount of data networks bandwidth hence the cost goes up.
Following is a list of VoIP codec’s along with how much data network bandwidth they consume.
* AMR Codec
* BroadVoice Codec 16Kbps narrowband, and 32Kbps wideband
* GIPS Family - 13.3 Kbps and up
* GSM - 13 Kbps (full rate), 20ms frame size
* iLBC - 15Kbps,20ms frame size: 13.3 Kbps, 30ms frame size
* ITU G.711 - 64 Kbps, sample-based Also known as alaw/ulaw
* ITU G.722 - 48/56/64 Kbps ADPCM 7Khz audio bandwidth
* ITU G.722.1 - 24/32 Kbps 7Khz audio bandwidth (based on Polycom’s SIREN codec)
* ITU G.722.1C - 32 Kbps, a Polycom extension, 14Khz audio bandwidth
* ITU G.722.2 - 6.6Kbps to 23.85Kbps. Also known as AMR-WB. CELP 7Khz audio bandwidth
* ITU G.723.1 - 5.3/6.3 Kbps, 30ms frame size
* ITU G.726 - 16/24/32/40 Kbps
* ITU G.728 - 16 Kbps
* ITU G.729 - 8 Kbps, 10ms frame size
* Speex - 2.15 to 44.2 Kbps
* LPC10 - 2.5 Kbps
* DoD CELP - 4.8 Kbps
Switch to VoIP Today and you will never want to use traditional PSTN ever again.
Thanks
-Imran
April 22nd, 2010 at 11:00 pm
Most of my friends stay on skype and are very much depended on it….it’s free who would’nt want to take advantage of such a service while it lasts ?
May 20th, 2010 at 10:36 pm
Is there any alternative to Skype ?