You should know now that I’m really a fan of Skype, since I write all my posts about it. I was really thinking about changing the argument, but it seems that nowadays it’s the only company that really surprise me and push me to write about. You should also know that eventhough I’m a fan, I’m very critic and objective when I write about it. So… here I go:
Today I saw in the Skype blog, the lauch of 4 pure WiFi Skype-Phones:
* Belkin WiFi Phone for Skype (F1PP000GN-SK);
* Edge-Core WiFi Phone for Skype (WM4201);
* NETGEAR WiFi Phone for Skype (SPH101); and,
* SMC WiFi Phone for Skype (WSKP100).
The innovator here was NETGEAR who lauched first the product, but its problem is the price (around US$220). Anyway, the fact that other 3 companies (and more coming) launch also their products is a clear sign that the market trend is toward Skype-Free telephony.
If you add this to the Skype-Zones that is a service that allows you to connect to over 18.000 WiFi hotspots around the world just by paying US$7.95 a month – so you can access in airports, coffe shops, malls, hotels etc. Or to a service like FON that if you share your WiFi router you can have free access to all the WiFi routers of the members of this “club” (and there are around 80.000). Why would you use your cell phone if you can use an Skype-WiFi-Phone for much less??
Ok, it’s true that the coverage of these WiFi networks – even if they are expanding – would not beat the reliability that cell phone networks have. But with the rise of WiMAX – which coverage is in the range of Km – a whole city could be covered reliably.
The problem with the WiFi hotspot approach is that when you change from one hotspot to another you would loose your call, so you have to talk in one place. This however is being solved by different research centers, and is treated in the latest version of WiMAX (802.16e). So everything is pointing to whole-city wireless internet access (In Colombia there are already 2 cities: Bucaramanga and Cali full WiMAX covered and more going), WiMAX-Skype phones, good bye cell phones!