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| Todd Allcock wrote:
> Because they're selling it under cost! Interconnect fees to US
> landlines run $0.01 (metro) to $0.05 (VERY rural)/minute. Incoming also
> costs you if you don't own your number pool (and Skype doesn't.) DID
> rentals run $1-3/month wholesale depending on the desirability of the
> area code/prefix. You CAN'T run a VoIP business with $20-60/year
> unlimited and make money, unless it comes from elsewhere- like
> MagicJack's supposed ad revenue. Now Skype might do it as a loss leader
> for eBay's integrated Skype "buyer/seller connection" services. eBay
> might figure Skype's low rates will attract more Skype users and
> facilitate more eBay transactions, etc. but that's a pretty thin
> business plan as well.
The money they paid for Skype is long gone, and the costs of keeping it
running are pretty low. The money they lose on Skype is lost in the
noise. This is good for Skype users, because the company could not
survive on its own.
The big problem with Skype, IMVAIO are a) per minute costs are much
higher than other providers, even though the unlimited service is a good
deal for big talkers, b) proprietary hardware, c) you have to have a PC
running to use it.
It was interesting to use Skype when they had free Skype-Out, but it
wasn't worth a higher price than free. Still, Skype to Skype is a great
deal for those that want to engage in endless gabfests. One place that
it could result in big savings is for conference calls. It's easy to
spend thousands of dollars a week on conference calls, and often the
calls are between remote offices of the same company that could easily
all use Skype.
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