Posts Tagged ‘3’
May 5, 2009
Last week, our friends at mobile carrier 3 - purveyors of the Skype-enabled X-Series handset line and needs-no-introduction 3 Skypephone - announced their newest plan to mobilize the Skype Nation. They’ve opened up their network to allow all 3 customers with a compatible 3 handset to make unlimited Skype-to-Skype calls - for free.
The official decree from 3:
“From 1 May, there will be no data charges or top-up fees for either contract or pay-as-you-go customers who use Skype on 3’s network. Anyone with a 3 handset will be able to buy a 3 SIM with Skype enabled and talk as much as they want to other Skype users without ever having to pay another penny.”
This is what we like to think of as a win-win (and, well…-win ) situation: 3 customers can bask in the veritable free calling bonanza, Skype’s user base will fatten-up, and 3 should lure some new users onto their network as well (not such a bad thing for 3’s revenue-sharing partners either!)
VentureBeat posted a piece last week which credited 3 UK as reporting that Skype pre-pay users give the operator 20% higher margins than ordinary pre-pay users, and that the Skype offering is driving user uptake, with 79% of all of 3’s Skype users new to the network.
VentureBeat speculates that “[t]he higher margins may very well boil down to the use of iSkoot, which routes Skype on to the voice circuit-switch rather than the more expensive data network. This, argues the company, makes the service less of a data hog than operators traditionally fear VoIP to be.”
While this blogger doesn’t Skype and tell, I WILL go on the record with this: Skype + circuit switch is, as always, the flag we’re proud to fly.
Posted in: New Things, The Word on Mobile VoIP | 1 Comment
Tags: 3, free calls, Skype
April 11, 2008
It looks like the 3 Skypephone is shining big and bright well beyond the mobile industry! In the latest issue of Dwell magazine–a monthly journal focused on the many forms of innovative modern design–journalist Virgina Gardiner examines the creative processes behind the 3 Skypephone’s inspired conceptual evolution.
Gardiner first highlights the 3 Skypephone’s particularly “multinational” components, noting that while the Skypephone (along with most of the world’s mass-produced products) is manufactured in China, “its parts are sourced from all over the world.” This includes “the Qualcomm chipset…from San Diego,” and of course, “the software from iSkoot in Israel.”
In an interview, Hutchison’s director of products Ken Johnstone explained to Gardiner that the fundamental mission behind the device design was to find the “best balance between affordable and savvy–inherent values in the market of Skype users.” The other essential factor was to deliver a user experience that would be both intuitive and appealing. “We have to be able to give the phone to someone who has never used Skype, and they need to not only understand it, but to like it.”
Judging by the warm reception in Hutchison’s 8 global markets, we’d say “Done, and Done.”
After four round-the-clock months of prototyping, the first working phone made its way to the Hutchison offices. “That’s exciting,” said Johnstone. “We start sharing it around internally, letting users try it out. For us, this was a highlight because the response was so positive.”
Once everyone signs off, the “factory line” starts cooking. And the rest, as they say, is history. 
To check out Gardiner’s full article, “Skypephone,” look for the May 2008 issue of Dwell magazine, on newsstands today.
Posted in: 3 Skypephone | No Comments
Tags: 3, 3 Skypephone, Dwell Magazine
April 7, 2008
Our carrier-deployed mobile Skype products aren’t just making waves, they’re blazing trails! Just ask Qualcomm CEO Paul Jacobs.
In a Wireless Week interview last week, Jacobs affirmed that the wireless telecommunications industry is fundamentally shifting into new, media-saturated territory. It’s no secret that mobile users today are demanding more broadband (or “broadband-like”) capabilities from their handsets, and Jacobs suspects that operators are going to have to rethink the way they manage their networks as a consequence.
When asked about products he identifies as potentially leading indicators of fundamental change in the industry, Jacobs pointed to mobile VoIP–and particularly to the wireless Skype solutions being offered by 3 (alongside technologies like Amazon’s Kindle eBook reader, Google’s Android platform, and the infamous iPhone from Apple).
As to just how disruptive these new and innovative offerings will prove to be, Qualcomm’s chief exec says the industry will have to wait and see. But as Jacobs points out, “There are certainly desires by some of the new entrants to make some fundamental changes in the industry.’
Yep, that sounds like us.
Posted in: 3 Skypephone, The Word on Mobile VoIP | No Comments
Tags: 3, Paul Jacobs, Qualcomm, trends, Wireless Week
April 2, 2008
On the heels of our successful collaboration with Skype and mobile operator 3 to launch of the 3 Skypephone — the first ever mass-market Skype™-enabled mobile handset — around the world, iSkoot and Skype have just committed to extending our partnership further!
Under a new agreement signed yesterday, iSkoot will have certain exclusive rights to offer Skype-branded mobile software enabled by our iSkoot solution to mobile carriers in Argentina, Greece, Israel, Norway, South Africa, Switzerland and Turkey. Providing an end-to-end client/server/gateway solution, our products will deliver mobile Skype voice functionality based on iSkoot’s one-of-a-kind, circuit switch-to-VoIP technology.
The word from Skype’s GM of mobile and hardware devices, Gareth O’Loughlin: “For nearly two years, iSkoot has been working with Skype to deliver Skype on 3’s mobile network. With iSkoot, we enabled Skype on a wide range of handsets on 3’s network and most recently launched the 3 Skypephone. We are looking forward to building on our partnership to bring Skype’s mobile offering to more of our users.’
We here at iSkoot are definitely looking forward to it as well, and are thrilled at the milestone of this exciting new agreement. As our founder Jacob Guedalia points out, ‘This agreement with Skype underscores the commitment to our partnership and the success that partnership has built over the past two years.”
And a big two years it has been. Driven by our rich new commitment, it should be a very big year ahead as well.
Posted in: New Things | No Comments
Tags: 3, agreement, Skype
