My own choice: Voipbuster

While we're on th subject of which voip provider gets our own vote, I'm a statisfied user of Voip. The moment Skype started their 'new pricing strategy', I switched to Voipbuster.

I was anticipating this new strategy, and thought they'dprobably change rates for their international calls. Instead of lowering their prices they decided to put a sneaky charge of 3,9 eurocents on all calls. This connection fee will make free calls not-so-free. For Skype users like myself this would mean a total price increase of over 50%. Easy choice there.

So here we go:

VoipBuster is one of several Internet telephony services (also called VoIP-service) of Betamax GmbH & co. KG in Germany. Formerly VoipBuster was a service of Swiss based Finarea SA. VoipBuster uses a client software with proprietary protocol, but can also be accessed via SIP-protocol. VoipBuster features low call rates. Users can mutually call for free, and call for free to fixed lines in several countries worldwide (0 pennies per minute and no start tariff) for a limited number of days after payments to VoipBuster.

Phil Wolff at Skype Journal had a nice blog about Voipbuster's reaction to Skype's Connection Fee. I can't help but wonder how many new customers Voipbuster got due to this.

I love wicked publicists! Here's small-guy VoipBuster making fun of big corporate Skype just hours after Skype's announcement on its home page and in a news release sent through the same channels Skype uses.

Skype increases all prices!
Cologne (ANTARA News/PRNewswire-AsiaNet) -

They kept millions of users waiting for more than a month, but today Skype (eBay) finally announced their new "pricing strategy"....

VoipBuster could not believe it: instead of lowering their prices they decided to put a new charge of 3,9 eurocents on all calls!! For almost all Skype users this means a price increase of over 50%!

Time to switch, because VoipBuster, the biggest rival of Skype, announced today more new countries can be called for FREE. Making the price difference even bigger!

Another reason why I like VoipBuster, is their cheap SMS text message service. Since I'm in France I'll be able to send unlimited free SMS text messages to mobile phones within France. This offer is not avai;lable for every country, but if you live in Australia, Belgium,
Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Portugal, Spain, United Kingdom, United States, it's free.

Check it here.

Well I hope that explains why I'm using Voipbuster. Still if you feel I should try another service, feel free to comment or mail it to me. I'm also looking forward to read about your favorite VOIP services and why you're using them. I'll give them a try and maybe I'll review them on this blog!

Ebay inc. Announces first quarter 2007 financial results

The Skype Group was aquired by eBay in 2005. April 18th 2007, they announced their first quarter 2007 financial results. Although there's not much to be found about Skype, there are some interesting things.

You'll find the report right here: http://files.shareholder.com/downloads/ebay/118118263x0x91268/649ccffe-1298-4bd0-ab53-1b33e9f9abd2/eBayIncQ12007EarningsRelease.pdf

On page 2 it says:

Q1-07 was a very productive quarter for Skype, with continued momentum in user growth, and the launch of several new productsintended to build community engagement and fuel Skype monetization over time.Skype net revenues totaled $79 million in Q1-07, a growth rate of 123% over the $35 million reported in Q1-06.Skype had 196 million registered users at the end of Q1-07, representing a 107% increase from the 95 million users at the end of Q1-06.

It's interesting to see how much the actual revenue of Skype has increased within a timespan of a few months. This, probably, can be accounted as a result of their 'new' connection fee of US$0.039.

Online news and weblog Gigaom.com put it this way:

Skype Revenues Up, but Usage Flat
Posted in: Voice

Are Skype’s plans to push users into higher-revenue calling plans starting to take hold? That might be one explanation for a surge in revenue during the past quarter, from $66 million in Q4 2006 to $79 million in the first quarter of 2007, while total minutes of both Skype-to-Skype and Skype-out usage stayed flat.

Here are some quick numbers from the eBay report today, comparing Q4 2006 to Q1 2007:

Revenues: Q4 2006 $66, million; Q1 2007, $79 million
Registered Users: Q4 2006, 171.2 million; Q1 2007, 195.5 million
Skype to Skype minutes: Q4 2006, 7.6 billion; Q1 2007, 7.7 billion
SkypeOut minutes: Q4 2006, 1.5 billion; Q1 2007, 1.5 billionQuick quotes from the call, where eBay said Skype just achieved its first quarter of profitability (!): “Skype continues to grow at a rapid pace… Europe continues to drive [business] and we are pleased with our traction in North America… The adoption of paid subscription plans [in North America] is ahead of our expectations.”

The expiration of free promotions in both the U.S. and Asia, eBay execs said, contributed to the flattening of traffic.