obama

2008 Year in Review: Just Skype, Baby

Doug Mohney — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 10:52:13 -0500

Despite the constant chant for eBay to sell off Skype since last year's $1.4 billion write-down, the voice company has continued to generate a steady stream of buzz - mostly good, but with an embarrassing gasp along the way.

Skype celebrated its fifth year of operation over the summer and now has more than 370 million registered users. The company brags that its peer-to-peer VoIP/IM/video client software is in use in nearly every country on the planet and that people have made more than 100 billion minutes worth of free Skype-to-Skype calls.

Skype announced a lot of big news this year including: the launch of a whole bunch of mobile phone clients; a deal with Digium to create a "channel manager" for the Asterisk IP PBX platform, which enabled Skype to be integrated properly into an SMB; the arrival of new executives, including a new CEO, CTO and Chief Strategy Officer; plus, a new version of the Skype client for good measure.

On the public policy front, Skype pressed (without success) the FCC to force wireless carriers to open up networks to outside devices and called VoIP dead. Christopher Libertelli, Skype's North American senior director of government and regulatory affairs, has probably spent more time on Capital Hill over the past 12 months than some Congressmen. It'll be interesting to see how friendly the incoming Obama administration is to Skype's desires.

The revelation that Skype's Chinese partner TOM Online monitored text messages and user data was embarrassing to say the least. Speculation also continues to boil up on a wiretapping back door for governments to conduct intercepts of Skype calls and messaging.

Will Ebay auction Skype?
Skype: VoIP is dead - FierceVoIP
AstriCon 2008: Working through the Digium/Skype Announcement ...
SPOTLIGHT: Skype never stops moving - FierceVoIP
SPOTLIGHT: Skype - The other birthday - FierceVoIP
FierceVoIP Leaders: Jonathan Christensen, GM of audio and video for Skype
SPOTLIGHT: Skype's Libertelli likes Levin for FCC Chairman, current policy not so much
Is China monitoring Skype calls?
Skype responds to security breach - FierceVoIP
A Skype Back Door?
The Telco Skype Killer?
Skype's mobilized phone play

Telecom Doesn't Matter

Doug Mohney — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 15:36:53 -0400

There are three main issues to this year's Presidential elections: national security; the economy; and energy--the rising price of oil and the rising concerns over carbon. Telecom policy only matters when it touches one of these three issues.

Otherwise, nobody cares.

If you don't believe me, last week's face-off discussing telecom and media policy between McCain and Obama surrogates in Washington D.C. didn't draw a peep from the mainstream press or the blogosphere. This despite ex-FCC chairman Bill Kennard slamming McCain for having no telecom policy and "bullying" government agencies to get his way. Nobody from the McCain office has called to "clarify" anything in the piece, so I suspect they haven't even seen it.

When Obama changes course on wiretapping immunity for phone companies; it is a national security issue, so it is front page news. Retired General Wesley Clark snipes at McCain's qualifications to run for president and it is front page news (Are we sure this just isn't an Army/Navy thing?). An FCC Chairman who sat across from McCain during his tenure on the Senate Commerce Committee calls him out and nobody cares.

Let's face facts: When people go to the polls in November, they're not going to vote for the candidate with the best Net Neutrality policy or the one most committed to the Universal Service Fund. Should they?

- Doug

Ex-FCC Chairman: McCain has no Telecom Policy

Doug Mohney — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 15:45:40 -0400

Barack Obama policy advisor and former Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Bill Kennard has no great love for Republican presidential candidate John McCain--especially on telecommunications policy.

Speaking at an event Wednesday sponsored by the Media Access Project, Kennard quickly challenged the idea that McCain's six-year track record serving as Chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee--responsible for telecommunications policy--was an asset. "It's stunning how little he's accomplished," said Kennard. "He doesn't have one [legislative] achievement [in] the telecom sector... there's nothing. Where's the beef?"

Kennard, FCC Chairman from 1997 through 2001, often had to go before the Commerce Committee to testify on telecommunications and media policy issues and seemed especially embittered when it came to a discussion of the Universal Service Fund and E-Rate program. "[McCain] sought to kill [E-Rate], then turned around and took credit for it ... he opposed it, didn't want it to happen ... he would bully government agencies."

In contrast, Kennard cited Obama's policy paper on telecommunications and technology posted on the candidate's website. McCain had no information and therefore "he just doesn't have" a policy.

McCain representative John Kneuer managed to score some points when the topic turned to media consolidation. Kennard said including the "nascent" Internet as a form of competitive media didn't make sense given its relative new nature but Kneuer pointed out Kennard spent time citing Obama's Internet assets, including 1.5 million online donors, 8,000 affiliate groups on the candidate's website and another million unpaid online volunteers.

Skeptical observers may have also taken issue with Kennard's portrait of Obama being outside of traditional Washington D.C. politics at a forum held in the offices of a downtown law firm. And if there was an "outsider" at the event, it was Kneuer, a former assistant secretary at NTIA. Of the four speakers participating in the event, Kneuer was the only one who had not served at the FCC, unlike Kennard, Skype's Director for Government and Regulatory Affairs Christopher Libertelli, and AT&T's Chief Privacy Officer Dorothy Attwood.

It should also be noted that Kennard departed the event to have lunch with former FCC chief of staff Blair Levin. Now at Stifel Nicolaus, Levin's name pops up on the short list for FCC Chairman in an Obama administration.

Related articles:
Obama's ex-FCC Backers ...
Telecom execs don't have a read on McCain, Obama