One day after eBay CEO Meg Whitman admitted that the financial performance of the company's Skype operation was disappointing, the company's voice-over-IP unit has updated its Skype for Business offerings.
The new features build on SkypeOut (inexpensive VoIP calling to public switched telephone networks) and SkypeIn (incoming calls from public networks). Skype's bread-and-butter free Skype-to-Skype calling also remains in place for business users.
Discussing eBay's financial report Wednesday, Whitman said of eBay's Skype operation: "While Skype continues to experience stellar growth in terms of its user and adoption rates, the monetization efforts we outlined at the time of the acquisition are not developing as quickly as we had hoped."
In its report, eBay said Skype had produced $195 million in revenue during 2006. While Skype revenue lagged behind eBay's hopes, Whitman said she was pleased with the tripling of registered users to 171 million. She pointed to a 164% revenue burst to $66 million in the fourth quarter over the year-earlier quarter as hopeful evidence of new revenue growth for Skype.
New Skype for Business features include a simpler installation procedure that lets users deliver the calling service to multiple computers across corporate networks. Other changes include an online business control panel to help users manage VoIP calling and allocate various Skype credits.
Subsea cable alternatives can provide a level of comfort for those concerned about disruptions. Realistically, they will continue to play a small, but critical role in the short term.
Maintaining existing network infrastructures often incurs huge technical debt before newer technologies are adopted over time.
Amid ongoing regional uncertainties, telecom infrastructure in the Middle East has expand to include terrestrial low-latency network infrastructure, which offers resilience and agility in navigating political complexities without relying solely on undersea networks.
