New TeleGeography Map (Photo credit: Emilie Ogez)
Image via CrunchBase
It's time to bring down Skype. I don't mean take their network down. No way. But Skype is now about as pedestrian as the telcos that Skype sought to bring down, and in reality did.
Skype has taken a stranglehold in the International long distance market as Telegeography reported back in February as well as having a strong opportunity in the landline replacement biz according to the likes of Forbes. But Skype as we know it today is an unregulated supplier of telecom like services, and is continually positioning to be the non-carrier, the way T-Mobile seeks to be the unCarrier.
But as more minutes, numbers and users subscribe and use Skype, the more they are like the companies Skype sought to bring down, and likely has started to do, the more we'll see actions to bring Skype in line with those companies. This means that it won't be long before the FCC looks at Skype and says, behave, do right and become what you are, another telco that offers E911, contributes to the Universal Services Fund (USF) and allows legal intercept access without hassles. Now with the Lync federation only weeks away, we can likely expect to see Skype do the things they have avoided for years in order to secure and maintain the business market share that parent Microsoft wants to continue to control so badly.
-- Andy Abramson
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