Gossip

Skype about to sell out - to Redmond? SIP RIP.

You'll have noticed that Microsoft has toned down the hype on its Smartphone recently. No, it hasn't canned the project! - but the enthusiasm ... what happened to that? The answer may lie in one word: Skype.

It will not have noticed expert readers: nobody can make Session Initiation protocol work - SIP doesn't sip, it sucks. Of course, the biggest proponent of SIP, by far, has been Microsoft. Well, not the biggest! - but certainly one of the biggest. It was "necessary" for voice over IP, said Microsoft.

But the most successful phenomenon around in VoIP - after Vonage - is Skype. If not commercially, certainly in terms of exposure!

At the WLAN Event at Olympia, we saw a lot of Skype hype. The founder was here, telling everybody that SIP (session initiation protocol) was useless - as we all knew, of course. And he's also (said the gossips) coming up to his ten millionth subscriber - got to over 4 million already.

What happens when he reaches ten million?

A clue, say the gossips: ask where Skype's UK operation is based. The answer: Thames Valley Park. Is that the same TVP where Microsoft UK has its headquarters?

Ho, yus ...