EBay-Skype Makes VoIP Mainstream

With most of the history still ahead for Voice over IP, it's not too soon to call eBay's purchase of Skype a watershed moment for the technology. In Internet terms, eBay/Skype is the new Netscape, a moment when someone in the public marketplace shoved a big pile of chips across the table to bet on a new and different way of doing things. How the game ends or who gets to play longest will be the subject of much conjecture, going forward. What is certain is that the machinations of companies who play in the advanced IP communications space, from unknown startups to established pioneers like Vonage, will no longer be solely the purview of focused spaces like this one. VoIP is mainstream news now, and the questions raised by the migration to an IP-based communications infrastructure demand wider, more interconnected methods of news coverage and issue analysis. For that reason and others, we are serving up last call here at the Advanced IP Pipeline, grabbing a final cold one before the movers and remodelers come in with their HTML hammers and saws. As we rethink and retool our methods for bringing you the best in advanced IP communications news, analysis and opinion, we can recommend a few other places to get your fill of VoIP information, starting with our sister site, the Networking Pipeline (where you are most likely to see me again in the near future), and our newest cousin, Light Reading.

If you want to stay up to date with any advancements in the "Geek Corps" notion, such as Jeff Pulver's idea for a ham-radio/Internet "field day," drop me a line here. Thanks again for reading.