Communication Breakdown
Communications from the world of, er, communications. And other stuff.
Wednesday 12 December 2007, 10:02 AM
Skype planning multiparty videocalls etc
I popped over to Skype's West End offices yesterday to interview Stefan Oberg - VP Telecoms - about a range of issues, most importantly the 0207 debacle and the possibility of Skype opening up its protocols to rival networks at some point in the future.
But one point that didn't make it into the final story (focus, David, focus!) was the hint that Skype may finally be working on conference videocalls - it currently does conference calls and videocalls, but the two concepts haven't quite crossed paths yet.
Speaking to Sten Tamkivi, Skype's Estonia-based eCommerce chief, by Skype videocall (embarrassingly patchy picture quality, since you ask), I learned that the prayers of many of you (I'm looking at you, Jamie) may be answered sometime soon. "Launching high quality video was high on our agenda," said Tamkivi. "Multiparty video is now going to be one of [our priorities]."
The other nugget that rose to the surface was the forthcoming enhancement of Skype Prime, which is soon going to enjoy better integration with Skype's directories service. It seems that 80,000 people have signed up as service providers for the scheme, but as for user numbers... well, they're not talking about that, really. Maybe because they've only been letting users in during the last month, whereas the service providers have been hanging around since March. I wonder how many of them will still be interested.
PreviousComments on this post
Hello David,
First, thanks for following up on these issues, and thanks for a good, informative article and blog post.
Second, thanks for thinking of me and more importantly the issues that I have been trying to promote for video IM users in general.
It is nice to see that you are taking the information passed out by Skype with more than one grain of salt. Actions always speak louder than words, so I would say that the patchy quality of the video call between two of their own offices is rather telling. You don't mention, was it one of their much-hyped "High Quality Video" calls? (You are correct, I would have asked about the quality if you hadn't brought it up.)
It is worth noting that their promise a month ago to reverse their decision on relegating the majority of their video call users to second class status has not yet been fulfilled. So statements about development priorities and possible future enhancements don't hold much water.
Thanks again for following up on these issues with Skype.
Ah yes - good point. I did ask again about the video issue (so many questions, so little space to write them all up). Here's what Stefan said: "It was a backdoor that we never intended to use as a service for our users. It was used internally to set up high quality calls. Starting tomorrow [i.e. today, Wednesday Dec 12], it will be back in."
So there you go!
PS - I would assume it was an HQ call, but it was very hard to tell.
