Telepocalypse

Skype segments

I just wonder if Skype could actually be a mobile carrier’s best friend.

The problem they have today is that bucket sizes are increasing, and data differentiation isn’t really working very well. Somehow they want to value price that network traffic, but how?

Well, take Stuart Henshall’s idea of offering Skype interconnect from traditional cell phones by using dial prefixes. Since Skype users are mostly consumers and small businesses, you’ve got a ready-made way of segmenting out the consumer-to-consumer calls from the B2B and C2B ones. Offer unlimited Skype calls, a small expensive bucket for business calls, and voila! Profit. You might even find ways to tweak your network to ensure the Skype calls get 2nd-class status, and “business class” calls don’t suffer blocks and drops.