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VoIP Check: Skype Launches Voice Service Program � Partnerships Follow
By TED GLANZER
TMCnet Communications and Broadband Columnist
It's been one busy Thursday for Skype; what with online auction site EBay Inc. looking into acquiring the Internet telephone company for a figure ranging in the neighborhood of $2 to $3 billion. (Now that's a nice figure.)
As if news of a possible multi-billion dollar deal weren't enough, Luxemborg-based Skype also announced the launch of its Voice Services Program, which enables any content provider to develop and offer Skype users free or chargeable voice services.
It didn't take long for the partnership announcements to flow. One such announcement is the Skype/Voxeo Corp. partnership that was formed to connect Skype callers to enhanced voice services running on Voxeo's VoiceCenter Hosted IVR Voice Application Platforms.
According to the companies' joint news release, the partnership will create new revenue streams for Voxeo's 14,000 or so customers, developers and partners by connecting them with Skype users.
Voxeo developers have the ability to create their own custom voice applications using Voxeo's free Evolution developer program - http://evolution.voxeo.com - and the free Skype software.
"When combined, Skype software and the Voxeo platform enable entirely new kinds of voice services – services that can provide value to callers and developers alike, without the limitations and concessions that come with traditional telecom companies, vendors and networks," said Voxeo CEO Jonathan Taylor in a prepared statement.
Indeed, over 52 million Skype users, according to the statement, can access free applications on the VoiceCenter platform and/or use their Skype Credit accounts to access games, celebrity gossip, business connectivity services and communications services.
"We are committed to opening the endless possibilities for voice by creating a marketplace for our thriving ecosystem of partners and developers to make it easy for their innovative services to be available to our millions of callers worldwide," said Skype CEO and co-founder Niklas Zennstrom in a prepared statement. "We challenge the world's most creative content providers to work with use and our partners such as Voxeo to develop these new and exciting forms of Internet voice services."
In addition to Voxeo, MAP Telecom, a European VoiceXML hosting company headquartered in Monaco, announced that innovative voice services can be developed on Voxbuilder, the online window to Voxpilot's VoiceXML 2.0 compliant Open Media Platform that is hosted by MAP, and then made available to Skype's millions of callers in over 200 countries.
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Ted Glanzer is assistant editor for TMCnet. For more articles by Ted Glanzer, please visit:
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