Telepocalypse

how about the ability to transfer a call...

Posted by: at April 27, 2006 09:48 PM

Some items on your wishlist (eg multi-device support) are already there, some have easy workarounds right now but might be improved over time (I use a "business" account and a "personal" one that only the selected few people know), and some will happen in a way or another at some point of time.

But as far as these damn USB headsets are concerned, go yell at Microsoft. It's their sort-of-operating system that thinks that anything you plug in must be automatically made default. Guess if I want to listen to my music through an USB phone? OTOH... if Skype finds a good workaround sometime, then maybe you don't have to go all the way to Redmond.

Posted by: at April 27, 2006 11:57 PM

I think I wrote about the "Default Windows Audio" issue a few months ago. VoIP and Windows Audio Flaw: http://dicx.blogspot.com/2006/01/voip-and-windows-audio-flaw.html. Probably one of the greatest inhibitors to Skype (and VoIP in general) adoption by a broader consumer audience.

The one device that I have found to address this issue had other conflicts (which to their credit they are working on addressing prior to doing a review).

Posted by: at April 28, 2006 01:33 PM

FAX! I wanna FAX thru the skype! 2 similar skype numbers with fax on one of it. That's my one wish!

Posted by: at April 30, 2006 04:01 PM

Have SkypeSIP next to SkypeIn. Be able to receive a SIP-call at username@skype.com

Posted by: at April 30, 2006 06:49 PM

not all users are computer savvy and quite a few cannot go beyond basics of basics. somebody, skype itself should make available 'skype for dummies' on line.

Posted by: at May 1, 2006 10:51 AM

Martin, Came across this recent announcement, believe it's just what you asked for.
"PolyCom Adds VoIP Mini SpeakerPhone"
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/060501/sfm081.html?.v=50

Posted by: at May 1, 2006 02:35 PM

You mean you want this:

http://www.polycom.com/products_services/1,,pw-34-14992-14993,00.html

Posted by: at May 2, 2006 05:13 PM

skypeout charges to different countries. i fail to understand the rationale in your pricing. china .02 and india .12: denmark .20 norway .02: armenia 06. argentina .03. i am from india and i feel you should bring down rates to that applicable to our neigbour china. i am sure you are aware of what is being said about india leapfrogging into the economic categories of developed countries. i look forward to your reduced rates for skype out.

Posted by: at May 3, 2006 08:33 PM

This is my first comment here and I like to introduce myself. I am Razib Ahmed from Bangladesh (A small country with a large population in South Asia). I came to know about this website from Brough Turner's excellent blog 'Communications'. I blog for Know More Media Network and in my blog (http://www.southasiabiz.com/), I cover South Asian Business.
I have mixed feeling about Skype. You see, in Bangladesh, not many people have high speed internet and that is why here SkyPe is yet to become popular. And that is why most people are not even aware of it and for free voice communications Yahoo messenger is more popular.

Posted by: at May 5, 2006 11:57 AM

Skype needs to enable more business functions such as call transfer, etc. In addition, the pc will never ring when headset is plugged in. You know, wearing a headset feels better than holding a usb phone, but when you do it, you just don't hear the phone rings when you step away from desk. What, enable the ring pc function? It never works!

Posted by: at June 17, 2006 04:20 PM

This is my first comment, so an introduction is warranted too. I work for a Toronto base PR firm that delivers Media Relations, Digital Publishing and Business Intelligence to a cool and growing group of technology companies in ICT and Biotechnology... We do High Tech PR ...

My blog is: http://prmeasure.blogware.com.

Skype as changed our business. We regularly make calls around the world - talking to clients, interviewing people to build content – all for pennies. We are truly a global firm because of Skpye.

That being said, there is nowhere near the functionality a full blown VoIP services can provide. Full blown enterprise VoIP functionality, that is available to small and medium sized companies, really is going to give Skype a for their money. It will be cool to see how Skype evolves in response.

Howard

Posted by: at June 25, 2006 02:07 PM

Hi all,

First some background. I am the owner of a US based firm specialize din the deployment of VoIP and UM solutions for large enterprises. Been in the business for decades and became data centric back in the 90's, convergence is our friend ;) . Most everything my firm does is high end applications and national/international deployments. We do well because the majority of employees are engineers, basically a group of highly skilled and motivated "geeks" who I recruited to conquer telephony and messaging.

I have been reading about skype for months and browsed the web site a few times. Same with Vonage, which I do not have but several employees who do use it have shared their experiences. This morning I decided to take it a but easy and work form the home office for a few hours before heading off to some technical meetings.

It's all over. 93 seconds and I realized it is all over. I kind of knew it was "over" but never imagined the speed to which is was ending. The big boys in the US (Verizon, AT&T) do not want the game to end and are trying to get congress to allow then to LIMIT high speed bandwidth usage for all but PREMIUM accounts for HIGHER fees. Google it and you can follow the news on the last gasp attempt for the old fossils to retain some level of a monopoly on communications. Sad thing is it appears Congress will help them because it recently rejected a Bill which would have prevented such changes and limitations on the WWW experience.

93 seconds. That is how long it took me to be connected to my first Skype Out call. The only bad experience was the minor delay caused by my Blue-tooth headset battery needing a charge and the digging for an old style pc mic. I could have done it in under a minute.

I read through some of the comments here and my reaction is basically, patience. "Don't get nervous and you will get good service".

We deliver many of the features being requested to enterprises on a daily basis, for years. It is only a matter of time before these capabilities translate to the consumer solutions and subscriber based services in general.

Follow the recent announcements MSFT has made regarding their entry into VoIP and Unified Messaging. Presence based technology is the buzz and SIP will provide the path.

So if you have troubles with a USB phone/headset or wish you could plug and pray a SIP appliance, patience. We do this all day long for enterprises and BELIEVE me the tech is getting cheaper, better and inclusive. This will certainly translate well as SBS extends offers to consumers and businesses.

Sure, a company like mine will still have it's place but it will be more APPLICATION specific and SI (system integrator) focused.

As for the voice communications, installing media servers for SMB end points (small medium businesses), it's all over.

Thanks Skype! It took 155 seconds to setup my first Skype conference call with a group of my engineers, some of which were basically ready to dump their Vonage accounts after I announced at the end of the call I used Skype (they kept asking what that crazy caller id was from and I just played dumb).

No where near the functionality? LOL

90% of telephone users utilize 5-11 basic features. Transfer is the only one I see missing!!!!!!!! Skype is not about being a call center!

It's all over!! (and that is a good thing!)

Posted by: at June 28, 2006 03:20 PM

"Ability to have separate “work” and “home” modes; in “home” mode only designated friends and family can see when you’re online"

Oh, this would be nice. Soo my frinds can call in the evening and I do not have too be at work all the time. And the other way around.

Niels Kobke, Denmark

Posted by: at July 7, 2006 12:25 PM

I am testing headsets for Skype outbound calls in a small call center environment. I find that all the headsets that I have tested for Skype outbound calls have more background noise (chiefly other voices from the call center)than we experience through the traditional phone system. Is this typical of VOIP calls or is it the fault of the headset microphones?

Posted by: at July 13, 2006 03:39 AM

Increase the sound quality of Voicemail Welcome Message. At the moment, after getting a pro to record a high quality message for us, it sounds terrible (due to Skype compression on their server). This may be OK for home users, but is unacceptable for business users...

Posted by: at August 1, 2006 03:22 AM

We are just thinking about getting into VOIP. We are looking at a Florida based company - Zingotel, Vonage and Skype. Have tested out skype and it is ok - the quality is definatley not nearly as good as a land line (at least this is what our tests have confirmed) We have a wireless broadband connection. I am not sure if it will be any better with the other guys at all...

Has anyone tried any of the others I mentioned above? Do you have any feedback for me? I do know one company in our area that has Zingotel and is quite pleased with them.. YOu do pay a monthly fee though (for both Zingotel and Vonage) - not so with Skype - although I wonder what is going to happen to free calls in Canada and the US at the end of the year!!!!

From a busines standpoint, being able to extract call data from the Skype system so we could upload it into a central SQL database would be great. We do this now (we have telemarketers working for us) and they also have to enter an account code prior to making a call. This allows us to report on each users calls made etc... Don't see any of this functionality in SKYPE.

Thoughts/Comments?

Thanks, Brad

Posted by: at September 19, 2006 11:48 PM

A worrying trend with companies like Skype is their complete lack of end user support.

The Skype lost password reminder system managed to deliver my first new password request three days later, and all subsequent requests not at all. All attempts to contact Skype support result in me being emailed a standard "what to do if you lost your password" over and over again that indicates that my support request is not being read, but rather just scanned for keywords and an automated response sent.

Right now there seems to be little evidence that Skype employs customer support staff at all, and although VoIP is the way to go in the long term, companies like Skype are not going to be trusted by business until the service reaches business class levels.

Regards,
Graham
--

Posted by: at September 26, 2006 11:20 PM

We'd like to be able to have our clients communicate with us when they are not at their home/work PC's, and without having to download Skype onto a public internet PC that isn't keen on loading programs (for either IM or voice calls).

Call transfer would be great. We love the product, but yes communication with Skype staff can be difficult.

We'd build a company around their product if we could....again it's less about the money...

Posted by: at October 6, 2006 05:29 AM

I've been seeking alternative communication resources for our expanding international business. I'd recently heard of SKYPE a few days back via a contact in China. Since then, I've been surfing within the SKYPE site to find concise details or information for supporting a business' all around communications needs. In particular for the on the go PocketPC/PDA/Phone user. When I clicked the two "approved" Pocket PC/PDA's shown on the SKYPE site, they were discontinued with no further information or other reccomendations available. Is there anyone out there who can advise me of their adventures using SKYPE via a Pocket PC or PDA device. Thanks for listening!!

Posted by: at October 21, 2006 08:21 PM

Ability to transfer would rock, that with call/hunt groups and we'd be on board for good. I need a virtual office for everyone and it would allow our company to hire folks from anywhere and have them up and running very quickly. Right now those features are rate limiting totally. It is rather unfortunate. I'd also love the home/work mode. I'd love to keep the home settings for users different from work, for example, when they quit or get fired, etc. they could keep the home settings, but work would be gone. wouldn't that be nice?

Posted by: at November 27, 2006 06:16 PM

I run a small retail mail order business in the UK and our web site is our primary customer interface. I have no doubt that a simple call transfer and a simple hunt group facility would encourage floods of small business users like me to sign up. Having a "Talk to me for FREE with Skype" logo on your company web site is a fantastic sales tool. However if that initial Skype connection is frequently busy or the person is way from their desk then it can be counter productive from a customer service point of view. (ie, I should'nt offer a service that I can't deliver)

Posted by: at December 8, 2006 04:20 PM

Hunt Group! Hunt Group! I need to dump our existing copper lines and go 100% Skype.. they are so close :( It's killin me.
I'll give a plug for my temp solution which is pretty damn good.. www.ringcentral.com

Posted by: at December 24, 2006 09:21 PM

I am using Skype for my own consulting business, which I run out of my home office. I make calls all around the world, and serve many clients (or projects) at the same time.

3 REQUESTS:
1) A fax line would be great - I second this!
2) A home/business setting - I second this!
3) I need a feature that can "tag" certain calls to certain clients (I bill them for all expenses), so when I download the call history (xls sheet) at the end of each month, I can easily bill each client the calls I made on their projects. Right now it is a pain in the ass, as I have to remember which numbers were for which clients -- harder when I work on 3 projects in one day. (Yes, it's just pennies, but pennis add up!) If there were one extra column in the xls that I could sort on "Client Name", my life would be easier.

- Perhaps there is already a solution to #3? If so, please let me know!

Thanks, Michael

Posted by: at January 19, 2007 12:50 PM