Pocket Skype

"I knew it was over when I downloaded Skype," Michael Powell, chairman, Federal Communications Commission, explained. "When the inventors of KaZaA are distributing a little program that you can use to talk to anybody else, and the quality is fantastic, and it's free—it's over. The world will change now inevitably." (Fortune Magazine, February 16, 2004)

Skype represents the latest in a long line of disruptive technologies that have appeared throughout human history, drastically changing the way we do things. The change doesn't necessarily happen overnight, but it often occurs much faster than anyone expects. For example, the MP3 file format, Napster, KaZaA, and more recently Apple's iTunes and iPod have drastically changed the distribution of music. Similarly, Skype will forever change the telecommunications industry by offering consumers free, high-quality voice communication on existing broadband Internet connections.

Skype is the brainchild of Niklas Zennström, a 38-year-old Swede, and Janus Friis, a 28-year-old Dane. These two very successful Internet entrepreneurs have made it their mission to completely wipe out the entire telephone industry as it currently exists. As Zennström put it, "The idea of charging for calls belongs to the last century. Skype software gives people the power to affordably stay in touch with their friends and family by taking advantage of their existing technology and connectivity investments."

Peer-to-peer telephony

Internet based telephone solutions, more commonly known as "Voice Over IP" (VoIP), have been around for several years. However, they have suffered from poor sound quality and latency (delay). Skype has resolved many of these problems by utilizing KaZaA's peer-to-peer technology. (A technical description of this is available on the Skype Web site: http://skype.com/products/explained.html.) The bottom line is that, with two desktop PCs with high-speed Internet connections, you can talk for free with anyone, anywhere in the world—often with sound quality better than a conventional phone call.

In addition, Skype offers a short-term hybrid solution called "SkypeOut" that, for a small per minute fee, lets you call a regular phone from a Skype connection. But Zennström firmly believes this to be a temporary solution—that all telecommunication will eventually be done via VoIP technology such as Skype.

Installing Pocket Skype and setting up your account

Noting the increasing processing power of the latest generation of Pocket PCs, and the fact that many of them are equipped with built-in Wi-Fi, Skype's developers decided to produce a mobile version of their software—Pocket Skype (http://skype.com/products/skype/pocketpc). The earliest versions of this program had some problems, but the latest (version 1.0.0.14) works much better. Installation is straightforward, but since the program occupies a whopping 3.37 MB of storage space, I'd recommend installing it in user-accessible flash ROM (if available) or on a storage card.

The first time you use Pocket Skype you have to create a Skype account and register your unique Skype user name (Fig. 1). If you are already using the desktop version of Skype, you can share its name with Pocket Skype. The Skype software and the account are free to individual users.

Fig. 1: The first time you use Pocket Skype, it walks you through the creation of your Skype account.

Using Pocket Skype