Skype for Business: Hardware Options

Skype, the free or nearly free VoIP provider, claims that 30% of its 171 million registered users worldwide make business calls with the service at least some of the time. Most, no doubt, are small business users and corporate employees acting outside the corporate firewall, but a few developments over the last year have coalesced to make Skype a more interesting proposition for enterprises. Security and privacy fears around peer-to-peer (P2P) services in general and Skype in particular have calmed. Filtering products let IT managers control their use on the corporate network. Skype itself has begun to focus more attention on the business market. It recently introduced Skype for Business, console software for managing company Skype accounts.Instant messaging (IM) continues to gain credibility as an enterprise tool, and Skype is a public IM service as well as a VoIP service. Indeed, one of its attractions, besides low-cost voice calling, is that it provides the same kind of presence information as other IM services and products. Skype just does a better job of voice than others. Innovative manufacturers and software vendors, meanwhile, are flooding the market with hardware and software products designed to make Skype easier to use. Interesting new Skype competitors have emerged. And Skype is beginning to make its way onto mobile phones.In this two-part update on Skype for business, we’ll look first at some of the interesting products making Skype more palatable for users, including enterprise users. Next issue, we’ll look at Skype alternatives plus solutions for putting Skype on mobile devices.PhonesSkype-specific handset and headset products began to appear 18 months ago. Most are consumer and small business products, but could also be used in enterprises – certainly in satellite and small branch offices and by teleworkers in home offices. Some are available from the Skype website, a few through retail channels. Others may only be available online, and in some cases only from the US. Wired headsets and handsets: While it’s possible to use a desktop or laptop PC’s built-in microphone and speakers as a rudimentary speaker phone to make Skype calls, you really need a dedicated telephony device if you’re at all serious about using Skype. This category is the entry point. Note: these are not Skype-specific products – they work with any computer voice application.Most wired headsets and handsets use USB, although it’s possible to find headsets that plug into the microphone-in and speaker- or headphone-out ports on a PC sound card. Many of the USB products, including the well-regarded .Audio models from Plantronics (about $28 to $125), require no additional software drivers – just plug them in and Windows will automatically set them up. You may need to go into the Skype software client and select the headset (or handset) as the active audio device – something that needs to be done whichever style and model of Skype phone you use.There are relatively few wired handsets, but the virtual shop at the Canadian Skype site does list two USB models – the CyberPhone K (about $72), a two-piece set – cradle and wired handset – and the Simply Phone (about $85), a one-piece wired handset.With the headsets, you control Skype completely through the client software running on your PC. To take a Skype call, you have to 1) find the headset, 2) put it on and 3) click the green Talk button in the PC Skype client. The handsets let you take calls as you would with an ordinary desk phone – pick up the phone, say hello – and make SkypeOut calls by keying in the number on their numeric keypads. But to make calls to Skype contacts, you have to set up contacts with speed-dial numbers, or interact with the PC Skype client.Cordless handsets: These products are typically Skype-certified or purpose-built to work with Skype. The major benefit, as with wired handsets, is that you answer Skype calls as you would any phone call, by picking up the handset, in some cases pressing the Talk button, and saying hello. No more groping for a headset and a mouse to interact with the Skype software client.Many of the cordless products use DECT (Digital Enhanced Cordless Telecommunications), a European standard that works over the 1920-1930 MHz band in North America, and boasts a range of up to 100 metres outdoors – and shouldn’t interfere with 2.4 GHz wireless LANs. Others use 5.8 GHz and 900 MHz. Most include a handset that sits in a charging cradle when it’s not in use, and a wireless base station. Phone and base station don’t have to be in the same room.The base station in almost all cases plugs into the USB port on a computer running the Skype client, although new models are coming that plug directly into a network router and bypass the PC. The handsets have built-in Skype software, a cellular-like numeric keypad and, in most cases, a small LCD screen that displays Skype contacts propagated from the host PC (or in the case of forthcoming PC-less phones, directly from a Skype account).You take Skype calls as you would with any cordless phone: pick up the phone and press the Talk button. You can make calls by selecting a Skype Contact from the list displayed on the built-in LCD and pressing Talk, or by keying in a SkypeOut number. Some also have speed-dial features.Some cordless products are single-mode, for making Skype calls only. The Cordless Internet Handset from Logitech (about $120) is an example. It worked well in my testing. Others are dual-mode. You can use the same handset (or headset) to make both Skype and PSTN calls. The base station plugs into the host PC (for Skype calls) and into a telephone wall jack.Vtech, GE and Panasonic all have dual-mode consumer cordless Skype phones, some with multiple handsets ($100 to $220). RTX America Inc. has the DualPhone 3088, which requires no PC because it plugs directly into a network router. The 3088 sells in Europe for about $185. The company says a major electronics manufacturer will be introducing a branded version of the 3088 in North America later this year. GN Netcom’s excellent but expensive GN 9350 (about $375) is the only dual-mode cordless headset phone we’ve seen.Wi-Fi Skype phones: Cellphone-size Wi-Fi Skype phones promise great convenience, but may not always deliver. Two are available so far in North America, Belkin’s Wi-Fi Phone for Skype ($200 at the Dell Canada website) and Netgear’s Skype Wifi Phone (about $275 at TigerDirect). Others are sure to appear, and prices will come down – they will have to.The idea is that you can use a Wi-Fi phone on your own WLAN as a cordless Skype phone, but also use it on Wi-Fi networks at other people’s offices, at Wi-Fi hotspots and on unsecured private Wi-Fi networks (although there are obvious ethical issues attached to this last option). In reality, there are many more restrictions on where and how these phones can be used than the vendors make clear.I recently tested the Belkin phone. It worked reasonably well, although range from the access point was shorter than with some of the DECT cordless phones mentioned earlier, and the Belkin phone seemed to be slightly more susceptible to echo and jitter than the best of the cordless phones. That said, with a solid Wi-Fi connection, call quality was always good enough to permit a normal conversation.The problem is finding networks the phone can access. Belkin has partnered with Boingo, a Wi-Fi hotspot aggregator. Users can download an upgraded version of the phone’s firmware with built-in Boingo functionality and pay US$8 a month for the Boingo Mobile service. It provides unlimited access to Boingo hotspots of which there are currently about 60,000 worldwide. The company has only tested about 29,000 of them with mobile devices such as the Belkin phone, however, and fewer than 100 in Canada.Where else can you use the phone? On any secure network where the network administrator is willing to give you an encryption key and/or add your phone’s MAC (hardware) address to the network’s table of allowed devices. Or on any network that has no security at all, which includes many home and small business networks, though fewer than was once the case.Quite aside from the ethical issues involved in using a private network without permission, it’s not a very reliable way of getting a connection. The phone scans for networks in range and provides a list showing signal strength for each. In my experiments with war driving in a mainly residential district, about one in 20 networks were totally open and provided a usable connection.Note also that the phone cannot use many free Wi-Fi hotspots or Wi-Fi services for which you’ve already paid, such as at a hotel, because they require you to enter a user name or email address and sometimes a password at a Web page. The Belkin phone does not include a browser that will let you do this. Nor does the Netgear phone.Skype-capable smartphones and PDAs: A better solution for mobile users would be a multi-mode cellular phone that can also make Skype calls. Third-party services such as iSkoot, Talkster and EQO let you use some existing mobile devices to make Skype calls (we’ll talk about them in more detail next issue), but these solutions require the use of relatively expensive cellular voice minutes and/or a data contract.Skype now has client software for mobile devices. The Skype website lists about 60 models from 15 makers that work with its Skype 2.1 for Pocket PC client and about 75 models from 25 makers that work with the Skype 2.2 Beta client for Windows Mobile.All let you make Skype calls over a 3G network. Data charges will apply, but if you’re already paying for an all-you-can-eat data service, the incremental cost is only the Skype charges. Wi-Fi-enabled models also let you make Skype calls over a Wi-Fi connection. Because these phones have browsers, they can log in to free and for-fee hotspots that require Web authentication, unlike the Belkin and Netgear Wi-Fi phones.PSTN IntegrationVendors are also bringing hardware and software products to market that make it possible to a) use a conventional phone set as both a Skype phone and a PSTN phone, b) integrate Skype functionality into an existing PBX (to allow employees to make and take Skype calls on standard office phones) and c) even create a low-cost Skype-capable IP-PBX on standard PC. Phone converters The simplest of these solutions connect to the PSTN, a Skype-enabled PC (usually via USB) and a single conventional phone with an RJ-11 port. You use the same phone to make and take both PSTN and Skype calls. The benefit: answering Skype calls no longer requires a change in traditional phone behaviour.Actiontec (www.vosky.com) sells the VoSKY Internet Phone Wizard (about $65), a basic device, and the VoSKY Call Center (about $95), which adds some fancy, though problematic, features such as Skype voice mail and the ability to make Skype calls from a remote location through the box. Multi-Link Inc. (www.multi-link.net), a small US-based company, has a similar product, the TeleVoIP Stick (about $120).Device software running on the PC integrates tightly with the Skype client and provides basic call-handling functions. It detects incoming Skype calls, for example, routes them to the converter, and rings the phone.To make a PSTN call with the VoSKY products, you use the phone as you would normally. To make a Skype call, you pick up the phone, key in a code and the VoSKY software on the PC generates a recorded message (heard over the phone) cueing you to dial a SkypeOut number or a speed-dial number associated with Skype contact.Basic functions in the VoSKY Call Center work well, the advanced features not so much. The voice mail feature does not allow you to record a personalized greeting and will answer both PSTN and Skype calls, making it unacceptable for business use. You can, however, turn off the advanced features.The TeleVoIP Stick is also not perfect – it won’t work with two-line phones, configuration can be tricky and the documentation is not great. It doesn’t offer voice mail, but does add the ability to transfer calls from Skype to the PSTN and from PSTN to Skype. You can even program it to forward PSTN calls to a second Skype account in order to receive calls when out of the office.PBX gateways: Actiontec has a line of VoSKY Exchange PBX-integration products that start at US$1,000 for a four-port model. They connect to virtually any PBX via FXO or FXS ports. The original four-line product, the 9000, requires separate USB connections to the PC Skype host for each line. More recent products require only one USB connection for up to eight lines and are rack-mountable. The very latest models, the 9140 (four port) and 9180 (eight port) add the ability to set up trunking networks to link multiple locations in a Skype intranet.Taiwan appears to be a hotbed of Skype hardware development. Spintronics (www.spin3d.com.tw), which advertises a phone number in the US, sells a variety of Skype-PBX integration products, including rack-mountable gateway boxes priced from US$1,600 to US$24,000. They add from 8 to 30 Skype ports to an existing analog or digital PBX. PORTech (www.portech.com.tw) has a line of SkyTrunk products, rack-mountable four-port Skype gateway boxes with FXO and/or FXS or GSM connections. Zero One Technology Co. Ltd. (www.ezskype.com) has both stand-alone Skype PBX gateway and PCI circuit board gateway products.Skype PBX: It is perhaps more an indication of how far Skype can go than a viable product for enterprise use, but Telephony2 Corp. (www.telephony2.com), run by a couple of ex-Microsofters, has developed CallButler, a software-only PBX for Skype. (Telephony2 also has a SIP-based version.) The Skype CallButler, priced from free to US$100, runs on any PC and provides basic IVR, mail and call handling. The target market is small distributed companies, but it could be used by larger companies to seamlessly connect teleworkers – especially beneficial if they’re overseas.CallButler automatically answers calls made to the Skype user currently logged in on the host PC – this could be a company account. The caller hears a greeting and IVR options and can also dial by name. Calls can be transferred to any Skype name or telephone number. The product even offers find-me, follow-me features that allow users to input multiple telephone numbers to try.It is possible to use CallButler to answer and route calls made to a PSTN number. Skype sells SkypeIn numbers for about $40 a year. They’re standard PSTN numbers (but no Canadian area codes) that are associated with a Skype name. Skype transfers PSTN calls to the SkypeIn number to the associated Skype name over the Internet. You could even use an existing PSTN number by automatically call forwarding it to a SkypeIn number.The original product had some limitations, which are really limitations with Skype, including the fact that it couldn’t properly handle more than one incoming call at a time – second and subsequent calls went automatically to voice mail. This is because Skype is an innately one-line service. Telephony2 told us at the time of writing that a new multi-line version was due out within weeks.Do these products make Skype a no-brainer for enterprise users? Not even close. There are still issues around security and, of course, call quality. But these products do go some of the way to transforming Skype from a tool for computer geeks only to something anyone, including any company, could use. Next issue: Skype goes mobile, and Skype wannabes. For part II of this story, see the April 1, 2007 issue of Telemanagement -- or click here.

Skype for Business: Hardware Options

News | 03/01/2007 5:00 am EST

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