It seems that Sype are adding an API to their latest software, according to this piece. This would allow a Skype user to signal their presence in a blog or anyother web site to allow instant VoIP messaging. This sounds pretty darn cool and has some seriously excellent business applications provided you can route calls coming in via the web site to agents with the appropriate skill set. On the upside, the centralized call center could become a thing of the past. Why pay the overhead when you can have agents working out of their home using Skype softphones on their laptops?
To follow up on my previous VoIP comments, I did download Skype for my Mac but have yet to use it. Anybody wanna help me test it sometime?
And the Washington Post ran a piece on how broadband is becoming a major selling point for houses in the suburbs. I’ve seen it have impact on property values– not so much that your house is worth more if it’s available, but that your property value is less if for some reason it’s not. Please, Verizon, roll out fiber to MY home!
One comment in the article took my by surprise, though. It comes from Gene Kimmelman, director of the Washington office of Consumers Union. He is quoted as saying that most all-inclusive packages of television, telephone and Internet cost more than $100 a month, a total that is beyond the means of many.
$100?!?! Hell– I pay almost that much for TV service before you count NFL Sunday Ticket. Throw in the phone service (which still is that all-you-can-eat LD package– I NEED VOIP!) and cable Internet and you have a dollar amount well above what Mr. Kimmelman quotes for all-inclusive packages. I would do a dance of joy if I could have all of that for around $100.
Hm – you must be doing something wrong if you pay *more* than $100 a month. I’m using cable for broadband, and they have a nice bundle-deal which brings in that and about seventeen gazillion channels for about $60 a month. It’s a bundle deal – but as the account rep said: “When the offer expires, just call our call center and threaten to cancel service – we’ll make a comparable offer for another 6 month. The only drawback is that you need to call the call center every 6 months”. I can live with that. Add all-you-can-eat VOIP through Vonage, and I’m at $85 a month. Which just happens to be the same amount I pay for my cell phone…. (I still think it’s too expensive. At least phone and broadband are almost a necessity of live by now…)
You do have a point. One “thing I’m doing wrong” is actually buying my broadband and television from different companies. This is the cost of being wed to a football fanatic for whom any television service without “NFL Sunday Ticket” is not going to do. DirecTV is the only option that has that from what I’ve seen. For my own part I prefer packages that offer all of the premium channels. Another thing that’s wrong with our set-up is not using VoIP. DirecTV is the deal killer once again, because the receivers require a telephone connection.