Skype

What’s Happening at BT-Ribbit?

Opus Research tries not to promulgate rumors, but I’ve heard from two different sources that BT, which acquired phone-app specialist Ribbit in late July 2008 for $105 million, has initiated some major changes in the organization.

Avaya and Skype Announce Alliance

Avaya is making it easier for its existing customers to initiate and control voice calls over Skype’s network. At the same time, the two companies have chartered a “strategic alliance” and are ironing out details of a technology roadmap that will bring video teleconferencing and “federated” instant messaging (in the U.S. only) into the service mix.

2010: Taking Recombinant Communications “Over The Top”

“Over the top” (OTT) is gaining momentum as the “term of art” for value-added Voice over IP (VoIP) transport networks. In rapid succession we’ve seen Avaya contemplating a relationship with Skype, Telefonica’s European wireless subsidiary 02 purchase JaJah and most recently Mark Plakias at Orange pointed me to a “Flash-to-VoIP” service, calling it an “OTT cocktail of Flash and Jingle-to-SIP gateway technology + carrier.”