On Wednesday 25 May 2011, randulo wrote: > On Tue, May 24, 2011 at 10:50 PM, Matt Darnell <mattdarn...@gmail.com> wrote: > > "We expect that users of Skype for Asterisk will be able to continue > > using their Asterisk systems on the Skype network until at least July > > 26, 2013. Skype may extend this at their discretion." > > It's widely believed. However, it's very possible that this was not a > Microsoft decision but planned by Skype before the acquisition.
Bgeh. Serves 'em right for using that POC! Who honestly *hadn't* seen this coming since the day Skype was first released? A subscriber with one telephone company has to be able at least to contact subscribers with any other telephone company -- that much ought to be self-evident. It is also highly desirable, where multiple telephone companies are competing for business in the same physical space, to be able to use the same equipment with any of them. Such interoperability requires open standards that can be implemented by anybody, and the most preferable way to achieve this is through an Open Source reference implementation (not just Asterisk; think OpenBSD and the Secure Shell, or Apache and HTTP). Skype's secretive, proprietary nature -- surely the absolute antithesis of what telecommunications needs to be about -- means that only Skype "subscribers" can talk to other Skype "subscribers". (It also potentially runs afoul of some European countries' telecommunications deregulation and competition laws -- except, as we all know, normal laws don't apply anywhere there is a computer involved). We in the Asterisk user community should be persuading Skype users to move to "proper" VoIP solutions, sooner rather than later -- even if that means recommending another proprietary product as a pragmatic intermediate measure. At least Caged products which *correctly* implement Open standards are likely candidates for Free drop-in replacements later. (Paraphrased and expanded from an earlier post by me on another forum.) -- AJS Answers come *after* questions. -- _____________________________________________________________________ -- Bandwidth and Colocation Provided by http://www.api-digital.com -- New to Asterisk? Join us for a live introductory webinar every Thurs: http://www.asterisk.org/hello asterisk-users mailing list To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users