VoIP Goes Big Box

This summer, thousands, if not millions, of middle-class Americans will make their first real contact with Skype and get their first taste of the possibilities of IP-based voice and video communications. Mega-retailer Wal-Mart announced plans to offer offering "Skype certified" hardware at 1,800 of its stores throughout the country. The distribution deal, if nothing else, exposes shoppers of the world’s largest retailer to branded "Skype Internet Communications" sections within Wal-Mart stores’ electronics departments. There they will find affordable headsets, webcams and handsets designed to work with Skype, as well as the first pre-paid cards for Skype available in the U.S. Up to nine different Skype Certified hardware products will be available, including VoIP for less than $15, webcams for less than $25 and handsets for less than $30 from brand names such as Plantronics, Philips, Logitech and more. Wal-Mart also is the first and currently only retailer in the U.S. to offer Skype’s pre-paid cards. Wal-Mart shoppers can purchase a $20 pre-paid card and redeem it for Skype credit required to make cheap long-distance calls (international rates as low as 2.1 cents per minute) to phones on the public switch telephone network worldwide via Skype. Of course, calls to other Skype users, including video calls, are free. Another pre-paid card is available in stores for a three-month subscription to the Skype Unlimited Calling Plan for just $8.85. This gives consumers three months of unlimited Skype calls to any landline or cell phone number in the U.S. and Canada. Currently, Skype users can buy credit only online. Clearly, executives at eBay’s Skype understand the potential a "store within a store" presence on the floor of the world’s number one retailer can do to boost membership, particularly when considering Skype cost-savings proposition jives perfectly with Wal-Mart cost-conscious customer base. "Our research suggests that when users add a Skype Certified accessory like a headset, handset or webcam, it greatly enhances their experience, and they use Skype more to connect with family, friends and business colleagues," says Don Albert, vice president and general manager of Skype North America. According to the Telecommunications Industry Association, 9.9 percent of all landlines in the U.S. were VoIP lines in 2006, and Skype is the number one software-based VoIP application in the U.S. by market share, according to a March 2007 report by In-Stat. Today, Skype has more than 196 million registered users around the world. So how important is Wal-Mart to American shoppers, and hence VoIP movement toward the mainstream? According to consumer research firm BIGresearch, Wal-Mart is the "shopped at most often" by American’s looking to purchase men’s and women’s clothing, health and beauty products, sporting goods and even groceries, and is among the top three retailers of footwear, prescription drugs and electronics, among other categories. On the business side of the IP telephony world, other big name news came from Microsoft, which announced an initiative with nine leading device manufactures to develop a "new generation" of devices that connect the workplace phone to email, instant messaging, real-time presence information, conferencing, VoIP and mobile communications. The phones and devices will become available for use in the public beta program of Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 and Microsoft Office Communicator 2007. Microsoft is providing the device manufacturers with design specifications to assure the new phones and devices work easily with Office Communications Server and Office Communicator. The participating companies include, ASUSTek Computer Inc., GN, LG-Nortel Co. Ltd., NEC Corp., Plantronics Inc., Polycom Inc., SAMSUNG, Tatung Co. and ViTELiX. Clearly, Microsoft’s intentions are to integrate its new communications servers with its base of installed