Nearly two months ago, I canceled my iPhone's AT&T service and made a leap into the mobile world of Skype. This has turned out to be an excellent decision for me. Although Skype is not perfect, my style of cell phone use plays well into its advantages. Furthermore, the price of the service by far makes up for its negatives, while the same cannot be said for other carriers.
Now that I have had time to use both Skype and its iPhone application, I have identified a few glaring deficiencies in the product. Should these major items be addressed at some point, Skype would become a 100% guaranteed replacement to traditional phone and cellular service providers.
What Skype Needs
SMS Reception
These days, text messaging is the absolute simplest and most essential telephony service. Hordes of web-based and phone applications for SMS can be found in all corners of the web. Yet, Skype refuses to incorporate SMS reception into its service, even though customers have been requesting this feature as early as 2005. Sure, it allows users to send messages to mobile phones, but this is all but useless as communication is a two-way street. Send-only SMS service is similar to offering speak-only telephone. I may as well buy an oversized searchlight, cover it with a logo cutout, and point it towards the lonely night skies in hopes that viewers will understand what I am trying to convey to them.
Can you guess what these symbols mean?
In all seriousness, I know that Skype could add SMS into its services. My biggest curiosity is why it does not, especially when users have been requesting it for as long as the company has existed.
Seriously Skype, I just programmed this SMS application in 5 minutes. I think you can do it, too.
Emergency Calling
Skype integrates with every other landline in the world. There is no excuse for it not to also offer its customers emergency calling. Other VOIP services (i.e. Vonage) have accomplished this. Skype has warnings strewn across its website stating that "Skype itself is not a replacement for a traditional phone and can not be used for emergency calling." Yet, as I have proven, Skype is a replacement for traditional phone service. Do I know Skype better than it knows itself... or is something else going on here?
Note that, on the iPhone, rumor has it that one can make emergency calls in the U.S. regardless of whether he has a wireless carrier or SIM card. I have not tested nor proven this to be fact, however it is worth mentioning.
Voicemail (iPhone-specific)
Update 7/1/09: As predicted, the latest version of Skype for iPhone allows users to listen to voicemail. Unfortunately, I do not expect to see anything else mentioned in this article addressed in the near future.
It is easy to receive voicemail on Skype when using the desktop version. Unfortunately, the iPhone application does not allow users to listen to their voicemail, nor does it do so much as notify them when a message is received. This is a baffling and heinous oversight that, in contrast to the other items in this article, I actually expect to be addressed at some point in the near future.
Note that there are some alternatives methods to receiving Skype voicemail messages. Thanks to a reader of this blog, I was made aware of PhoneTag, which is a service that will automatically transcribe voice messages into text and email them to recipients. Another company, SpinVox, offers comparable services. At 25 to 35 cents per message, these services may be useful solutions for users who want to receive their messages immediately in text form, rather than waiting to listen to them on the desktop version of Skype. At the moment, I have not experimented with either of these transcription sites, however I am tempted to give them a test run.
Something Sinister
There is something very strange and very wrong about how Skype has decided to conveniently (for telecommunications competitors) and inconveniently (for consumers) leave certain features out of its service. Emergency calling has been accomplished by other VOIP telephony companies and certainly would be no trouble considering that Skype is already integrated with the many other landlines of the world. SMS is such a pervasive implementation that one can, on the iPhone alone, choose from no fewer than 30 SMS applications. Moreover, evidence of Skype users requesting these features can be found from as far back as 5 years ago. Often, software developers actually listen to their customers and continually improve their offerings. Without a doubt, SMS is an essential feature for cellular telephony and Skype is significantly less of a service for not implementing it. With SMS and other minor improvements, Skype would challenge and likely bankrupt the traditional telecommunications powers. Since this outcome is both feasible and viable from an implementation standpoint, it is a great wonder why Skype chooses not to capitalize on its opportunities. Rarely (ever?) does a business intentionally restrict its own capabilities at the detriment of its earnings potential. Perhaps there is a larger conspiracy at play. Maybe the federal government has an interest in keeping the large telecommunications companies alive and thriving. Maybe Skype is being paid off or threatened by the traditional providers (AT&T did, after all, block iPhone 3G access to Skype).
...Or Just Slow?
Then again, there may be nothing sinister about Skype. It could just be very slow or aimless operation. Ironically, this would be much preferred over a diabolical conspiracy, as that scenario would ensure that Skype never becomes the new telecommunications provider. It is time for Skype to wake up and get to work. Its iPhone, Blackberry, and future smartphone applications are just the first step towards dethroning the outdated monoliths. Regardless of the reasons behind Skype's conspicuously undeveloped features, the meantime loser is the consumer, whose lack of an alternative forces him into the hands of oligopolic tyrants. Should Skype take itself to the next level, it would not only do the right thing to liberate consumers, it would do the right thing for its own pocketbook.
What To Do
In the meantime, I do highly recommend Skype to iPhone users who want to break free from their high-priced AT&T contracts. Be aware that Skype requires a wireless internet signal to work, so this solution is best for users who are constantly blanketed in Wi-Fi. If parting with SMS and using the desktop for voicemail sound like minor adjustments to your calling routine, then you will probably appreciate saving the $60-70+ per month.
2 comments:
Well, I do have an answer for you for the SMS/Emergency calling issues. Skype is not a real phone company -- and that is on purpose. When they formed, they felt that one of the things that was weighing down a lot fo the larger companies trying to do the same things were the regulations that are dictitated by being a "real phone company". Things like the requirement to pay into the many of the mega-funds like USF or requirements for outage reporting. This means that Skype has a much smaller operating budget, and can afford to do things on the cheap.
On the flip side, because they are not a true CLEC (Competitive Local Exchange Carrier), they are blocked from certain things. For example, they can't directly integrate with a PSAP (Public Service Access Point, or 911 system), and they don't have access to NuStar for number directories. NuStar is the company who says this block of phone numbers go here, and this block of phone numbers go there. They also run the directory for cell numbers, so that SMS messages can be delivered.
Because Skype just purchases regular phone numbers from a company like AT&T or Verizon, they are just another telephone customer like MSU or Bubba's Tire company down the street. They can't tell AT&T to deliver SMS messages to them, because they don't have that direct integration with the telephone network.
They CAN send SMS messages however. By using a kludge of email and GPRS systems, they can send messages out -- because you can do this from a single phone number, and a single gateway.
Hope this clears up some of the "why" :)
Thanks a lot for the explanation.
The problem seems to be that Skype is not allowed to connect to certain services because it is not implemented as a "phone company." However, supposing that there were a way to get itself access to the emergency/SMS/etc. things that the "real" companies have, then it could offer the same services. The key would be retaining its status as a "fake" phone company in order to keep its costs low.
At one level or another, it appears that a structural reform is needed. "Real" companies are losing business to "fake" companies, because their charges and operating costs are too high. "Fake" companies are not afforded all of the opportunities that "real" companies are, so they cannot offer consumers everything that they need.
I get the feeling that some entrepreneur is going to sort this mess out and hit it big. Of course, the alternative is that nothing changes and the industry dies a slow death as customers flock to other forms of communication.
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