Posts Tagged ‘Jim Courtney’
October 6, 2008
Another point scored for iSkoot’s “VoIP via voice” approach to mobile Skype this past weekend! Jim Courtney over at Skype Journal was tinkering with a data channel-based mobile VoIP app for the iPhone on Friday, and in a virtual side-by-side comparison with iSkoot, the result was, well…read for yourself!
“The benchmark in call quality would be my experiences earlier this week where twice, when my home office cable was disconnected due to “cable plant” improvements in my neighborhood, I used iSkoot on the Blackberry Bold to call into SquawkBox via the CalliFlower voice conferencing service over the Rogers 3G network.
Let’s just say in the iSkoot calls, the technology was transparent to the discussion and I could lay the phone on my desk while still actively participating.”
As it should be! In this day and age - mobile Skype shouldn’t be about what you can do, but what you can do well. Thanks–as always–for the positive plug, Jim!
Posted in: The Word on Mobile VoIP | No Comments
Tags: iSkoot for Skype, Jim Courtney, Skype Journal, voice vs. data
May 23, 2008
Our friend Jim Courtney over at Skype Journal knows a thing or two about the happenings in the world of Canadian wireless. In his piece “The Canadian Wireless Scene Gets Interesting,” Jim spent some time weighing the implications of Canadian wireless operator Rogers being the only GSM service provider in the country.
With Roger’s singular claim on GSM, Jim surmises that there are really “four potential suppliers” for the mobile operator from the smartphone camp:
* Apple, with its iPhone which requires GSM
* RIM, whose WiFi -enabled 8×20 Blackberries require GSM to be able to use the UMA/GAN feature
* Nokia, who basically only builds GSM-compatible devices
And…
* iSkoot with their Skypephone which requires GSM
That’s what we call a line up. 
But until the Skypephone - which is currently available in Europe, Asia and Australia - makes the hop across the pond, Jim reminds that our FREE iSkoot for Skype software enables mobile Skype calling today on a variety of devices, including those BlackBerry and Nokia smartphones - plus a load of others. So get your mobile Skype on, Canada!
Posted in: 3 Skypephone | 2 Comments
Tags: 3 Skypephone, Jim Courtney, Rogers, Skype Journal
April 18, 2008
Lee Dryburgh, eComm coordinator and telecom technology expert, sat down with Chief Analyst at STL Partners and long-time telecom strategist Martin Geddes a while back to mull over the short- and long-term industry effects of the telecom-broadband convergence. It was supposed to be a 15 minute conversation. It ran about an hour and 15 minutes. Yowza.
So what happens when you put two telecom thought leaders into a room to chat it up for 75 minutes? 2 things:
1. They confirm that mobile VoIP calling via the voice channel is the only viable solution, of course.
2. Jim Courtney takes notice.
You can hear the audio of the interview in its entirety here. But we’ll go ahead and share a few of our (and Jim’s) favorite excerpts with you.
For one, Lee sums up that when it comes to getting VoIP calling on mobile, “Ingeniously, Martin has been thinking of the Internet as a means of signaling and coordination rather than always also the best means of delivery.”
Martin proposes, “Why don’t we focus on allowing the “IP” part to do what it does well,” things like providing “presence data” and “location information….and let the phone[voice] network do what it does well, which is phone calls.”
He also points out that to get a 100% data-based VoIP calling system in place that will actually, reliably work for people, you essentially “have to throw an awful lot of [VoIP] technology at a problem [voice quality/delivery] that does not exist” otherwise.
Martin advises that we should “stop worrying about trying to do voice over IP until the technology is super duper mature until we can not possibly afford to maintain two networks -which is quite a long way away still.”
That’s what we’re saying.
*VoIP solution that sticks calls on the Voice network: Check!
*VoIP solution that uses the Internet as a “signaling system” to deliver presence info: Check!
So does this qualify our solution as (dare we say) “ingenious?”
As Jim Courtney says in his Skype Journal recap on the interview, “Sounds like iSkoot…may be on to something here.”
Posted in: The Word on Mobile VoIP | No Comments
Tags: Jim Courtney, Lee Dryburgh, Martin Geddes, Skype Journal, voice vs. data
April 10, 2008
We’ll be the first to admit it. All this talk about VoIP (”…is that like Vonage?”), data channels, voice packets: It can get a little…techie. All the same, the advantages of sticking iSkoot on your mobile phone are way too juicy to let something like telecom jargon stand in your way. And fear not: We’re pleased to report that our friend Jim Courtney over at Skype Journal has broken down all the reasons why iSkoot’s mobile VoIP recipe REALLY WORKS in his recent post: “iSkoot - Providing Carrier Friendly Access for Skype Calls.”
Nice! Now let’s get to some highlights.
Lesson 1: Trying to make VoIP calls over your phone’s data connection just doesn’t work. Why? Mobile phones are NOT mini-PCs. The technology is different, and so are the rules. Mobile phones run with limited internal resources, and just don’t have the battery life, memory and CPU speeds to handle sustaining phone calls over the data channel. As Jim warns, “Even the ability to multi-task with multiple applications becomes an issue.” Yikes. On top of overburdening your phone, you’re also going to battle with inconsistent, mediocre call quality.
Starting to seem like a No-Brainer? Wait! There’s more - Chances are, your mobile service provider wants to shoot “data-channel mobile VoIP” out of the sky too. In Jim’s words, “it does not provide a carrier-friendly business model. Filling the data pipe while attempting to reduce the billable “minutes of use” (MOU) is not appealing to a carrier executive who’s responsible for increasing average revenue per user (ARPU).”
Lesson 2: VoIP calling over the voice channel–a.k.a the iSkoot approach–absolutely works.
iSkoot uses the channel that was built specifically to sustain phone calls. (Why take bumpy back roads when the streamlined highway is right there?) You get the great call quality you’re accustomed to, in a way that won’t annihilate your phones battery or memory supply. In fact, our network infrastructure is specially designed to keep the technical “heavy lifting” on our network and OFF your phone.
Lesson 3: You, the user, will like what you see.
In the words of Jim himself: “The process for the user is almost as simple as making a normal call: Install the iSkoot client on your mobile smartphone, answer questions about your setup, including Skype ID, password and mobile phone number, Sign in - it takes a moment or two to download all your Skype contacts with their status, [and] select a contact and launch either a voice or chat conversation.” It’s a snap. Call or chat with anyone on your Skype list at the click of a button.
Lesson 4: Your mobile carrier will like us too.
Since we’re working with the carrier’s infrastructure to put voice calls where they belong, iSkoot actually increases MOU and ARPU for carriers. Just ask our partner, mobile operator 3 - the purveyors of the Skypephone and the Skype-enabled X-Series handset line. Heck, the Skypephone did so well that 3 “accelerated the launch of the Skypephone in its other eight markets.”
The moral of the story: With our carrier-friendly style of mobile VoIP, iSkoot’s got a solution that makes sense for everybody. We plan on sticking around for a while, and delivering you, the user, the best mobile Skype experience in town.
Posted in: The Word on Mobile VoIP | 1 Comment
Tags: 3 Skypephone, Jim Courtney, Skype Journal, voice vs. data
April 8, 2008
FCC Chairman Kevin Martin dropped a bomb on “open network” proponents at CTIA last week, publicly and candidly rejecting a petition from Skype that would require wireless operators to allow any lawful mobile device to connect to their network. Martin defended that with ample competition and a shift toward openness already happening in the marketplace, such a regulation was unnecessary.
Skype Journal’s Jim Courtney is one of many industry players expressing heated disapproval towards Martin’s out-of-hand dismissal, asserting in a GigaOM editorial yesterday, “This decision demonstrates nothing less than a failure on the part of a U.S. government agency to comprehend the technology infrastructure available to enhance business processes…and take advantage of today’s more cost-effective rapid software development tools.”
Countering the oft-cited carrier concern that openness would ultimately enable users to circumvent the traditional voice networks entirely, Jim reminds that the impact of Skype’s presence on mobile platforms thus far has been virtually “negligible,” given that mass availability of “pure” mobile VoIP (VoIP over the data channel) still requires the resolution of hefty wireless data infrastructure issues.
In his editorial, Jim highlights iSkoot for still managing to not only enable access to Skype via any carrier, but to do so in a way that “bring[s] both market advantages and cost savings to carriers” as well. iSkoot’s approach to mobile VoIP has enabled us to develop unique relationships with carriers, and simultaneously offer Skype access to subscribers on carriers with whom we don’t yet have a direct relationship.
In response to the FCC’s refusal to take a direct hand in opening networks, Jim calls for mobile users to gear up for “guerrilla warfare mode.”
Step one: “Use iSkoot…to access your Skype and SkypeOut contacts from mobile devices such as Blackberry, Nokia and other smartphones.”
Game on, Jim.
Posted in: The Word on Mobile VoIP | No Comments
Tags: CTIA, FCC, Jim Courtney, Kevin Martin, Skype Journal, voice vs. data
March 28, 2008
iSkoot’s very own CEO Mark Jacobstein hit the ground running at the 2008 eComm conference earlier this month, giving a talk on the virtues and viability of iSkoot’s uniquely carrier-friendly approach to mobile VoIP. By designing a thin-client application and network infrastructure that route Skype calls over the mobile phone’s voice channel instead of data (iSkoot’s “secret sauce” 
), iSkoot can run on nearly any phone with minimal impact on battery power and memory–unlike data-dependent mobile VoIP clients, which can’t make the same claim.
Mark illuminated the competitive advantages of iSkoot’s technology by pointing to our successful collaborations with mobile operator 3 to bring Skype-enabled mobile handsets to market in 8 countries.
As Jim Courtney observed in a recent Skype Journal post, “iSkoot has demonstrated how to overcome these barriers with their support for the 3 Skypephone service as well by providing clients for other smartphones, such as Blackberry and Nokia, that take advantage of their architecture to operate IM over the data network but voice over the inherent voice channel.”
Jim also pointed out in a previous post that “Mark’s presentation generated lots of post-presentation informal discussion, especially with respect to the potential for iSkoot’s operation on…mobile platforms such as BlackBerry, Nokia and Windows Mobile devices.”
Of course, we’ve got iSkoot for Skype solutions for BlackBerry, S60 and Windows Mobile devices available on our website TODAY, free to download! Check ‘em out, people!
And thanks for the shoutout, Jim!
Posted in: Management Team, iSkoot Appearances | No Comments
Tags: eComm, Jim Courtney, Mark Jacobstein, Skype Journal, voice vs. data
