is this the future? is telecom scared? and is the internet goingto choke?

SkypeOut Now Totally Free in US and Canada
http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=2346

Apparently some ISP's have started blocking skype because it is cutting
into their own revenue and voip products..(here in nz its probably just
"shaped" hehe)


Also...
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060514/ap_on_hi_te/net_neutrality

 

They traffic shape in the UK too so it isn't just confined to here.

 

Hmm, couple of questions:

1) They claim totally free, but you need a SkypeOut account which
requires a 10 euro up front purchase.

2) They say the caller and callee have to be in the US or Canada, How
can they accurately determine if the caller is in the US or Canada?
I.P. number?

 

Friend of mine has been using Skype from Auckland to call PC based friends
all over Europe without any hassles.....so far.... dont know if hes tried
PC-L/line tho...

 

I am well aware of that, they shape almost everywhere.
There is general shaping to make sure something like http gets through.

That is different to deliberately throttling one particular service
though such as skype which was what I was getting at.

 

Im taking a guess that by this they mean calls to a land line ie skype
user to skype user anywhere in the world is free.

off the web site.

"Skype is a little program for making free calls over the internet to
anyone else who also has Skype. It’s free and easy to download and use,
and works with most computers."

regards

Thing

 

In the US, the battle is about "net neutrality".....in other words, the
telcos want the power to mess with Internet traffic for their fun and
profit.....and they aren't much interested in what the customer is actually
trying to do with TCP/IP and the connectivity they thought they had paid
for.

 

That has always been free, skype to skype, now it's free to normal
phones in the US which is a pretty big step...

 

Do you? or rather do they?, that I suppose is probably the catch, but
perhaps they have allowed people in the US to make calls to US numbers
without having credit on skypeout.

probably.

 

Yes. Skypeout is currently free for US to US customers, except they missed
out a few subnets

Steve

 

Nothing like driving market share.....

Just proves that it is all data but Telcos try and convince us that
voice is more valuable and hence worth paying hundrds of times the rate
of data for.....then of course turn it into data themselves....biggest
con out there.

regards

Thing