Why Skype for Asterisk is more important than Skype for SIP
Back in September of 2008 and now today, Skype has announced initiatives to open the Skype network to SIP users. These two solutions; Skype for Asterisk and Skype for SIP are very different and offer significantly different capabilities.
Just to recap the details. Skype for Asterisk, which is still in closed beta, is a true Asterisk channel driver. This allows Asterisk based solutions to make, receive and transfer Skype calls. A significant capability of the SFA solution is its support for terminating a call to a Skype user name, for example a PC based user of the Skype client.
Skype for SIP is a very different animal. This service provides VOIP trunk support for existing SIP based PBX systems, which may include Asterisk. Unlike SFA where calls may be place to any Skype user, SFS calls may only be terminated to PSTN end points.
So what does this all mean to the Voice/Telco 2.0 marketplace. Overall Skype is beginning to leverage their extensive VOIP network to compete in the VOIP origination and termination marketplaces. Both of these services would enable a SIP based PBX user to utilize Skype as their transport vendor. For example, a traditional SIP PBX customers would directly use SFS for call termination and would provision Skype in numbers to provide origination.
From our perspective as a cloud telephony company, providing hosted telephone applications, SFA is much more interesting. While either service would allow us to provide IVR services to Skype users, the SFA Asterisk channel driver architecture allows us to terminate calls into call centers with no PSTN transport. Each call center Agent would just utilize a headset connected to a computer running the traditional Skype application. Customers calls would be able to originate from either a PSTN device or a Skype client, then route through the Ifbyphone IVR infrastructure and terminate to a call center via Skype's computer to computer transport. This has the potential to change the cost structure associated with supporting call centers. A Skype based call center would not require a PBX or for even any centralized telephony components. The call center agents could be virtually located anywhere in the world on high quality Internet connections.
Overall Skype's moves to open their network are exciting and create significant opportunities for innovative Cloud Telephony companies.
8 Comments
Hi Irv,
Is that really the case? If it is then I've misunderstood and SFS isn't as interesting as I thought it was.
The homepage says this - "...with Skype for SIP you can now reach a community of over 405 million Skype Customers..." which led me to believe you would be able to call Skype clients rather than just use it to terminate to the PSTN.
Matt
"Place calls with Skype to landlines and mobile phones worldwide from any connected SIP-enabled PBX; reducing costs with Skype’s low-cost global rate"
In addition you can read more details about this in Dan York's excellent blog post where he says:
"It's interesting to note what this release does NOT have - the ability to call from your IP-PBX out to a Skype user. You can call out to PSTN numbers via the SkypeOut connection... but you can't call a Skype ID. This isn't surprising, on one level, because this is a MUCH harder problem to solve. Basically every SKYPE ID would need a SIP address (a "SIP URI" in SIP-speak) that the IP-PBX could use to connect."
Dan's full post is located at:
Disruptive Telephony Blog by Dan York
SFS has relegated SFA to a niche. Yesterday, there was immense value, today, much less so. While I agree that having the ability to reach call center agents via Skype P2P is an advantage, it is a niche. SFS is what the masses really wanted, SFA now appeals to a much smaller audience.
SFA still has it's place, just not as broad.
Irv,
Thanks for the positive comments on the importance of Skype For Asterisk. I've just posted an explanation of what we feel are the key differences between SFA and SFS. The post also gives a bit of an explanation for where we are in the development process: http://blogs.digium.com/
Skype For SIP is SIP trunking from Skype. Skype For Asterisk is a means of building rich applications on the Skype network. I'm not at all opposed to the former but the latter is much more interesting to developers, call center operators and enterprises looking to make Skype connectivity a part of their business offering.
Thanks,
Steven Sokol
Product Manager for Asterisk
Digium
Skype For Asterisk is especially exciting for Asterisk developers and consultants alike. Considering the popularity of Asterisk as a platform, describing SFA as a niche because of the SFS announcement is a bit short sighted.
Skype for SIP is really just a SIP termination service offered by Skype. There are no set fees for this service yet, but according to existing rumors there will be a monthly subscription fee + cost of calling. Given all that, I don't see much advantage of using Skype for SIP termination as oppose to any other SIP provider. Yes, there is the added benefit of accepting incoming Skype calls, but that looks like a minor advantage especially given all the setup work that is required. IndustryDynamics is an international manufacturer of Skype gateways for business. We have developed an award winning VoiceGear Connect platform, which allows business of all sizes to take advantage of Skype. VoiceGear Connect gateways can be integrated with any Analog, Digital or VoIP PBX system. VoiceGear can support all features offered by Skype including incoming SkypeIn and outgoing SkypeOut calls, SMS, chat, file transfer and more... VoiceGear Connect is a powerful platform which offers extensive Web-based API that can be used by third party developers to build applications leveraging Skype communication or integrating with existing business processes.
siptosis can be used to make asterisk work with skype and voice quality is very good. I followed this tutorial by Tim Holum http://timholum.com/wordpress/?p=3 He also offers a free download of siptosis so you dont have to pay the $3 "Distribution Fee" from the official site
The SipToSis official site HAS free downloads.
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