Friday, January 25, 2008

A SIP address for Skype? Better the other way around!

There is a much quoted explanation from Emoci of Toronto how to create a SIP address that will ring to your Skype name using the Net2Max.com service. It's quite difficult to implement but has received many kudos.

I like these kinds of solutions very much, but I would prefer it the other way around: that Skype rings my SIP address. So I would never have to switch on Skype again. I have all my SIP accounts nicely consolidated to ring my phone or my cell phone. I could do the same with Google Talk, Yahoo and MSN. Only on Skype I am nearly never reachable because I don't like communications that force me to switch my computer on. That's why Skype is Oldschool to me. VoIP has left the PC world long ago and goes along with me.

Mr Blog, David Beckemeyer, thinks the same:
I couldn't agree more, particularly "So I would never have to switch on Skype again." Why doesn't Skype simply offer a 'forward to my SIP address' option? Of course we know why. They want to keep everyone contained in their world. They say it's because Skype users don't want interoperability - if you are a Skype user, maybe it's time to tell them, not me. I agree with you! :)

That reminds me of the recent discussion started by Dan York: "Skype says "No" to VoIP interoperability - *because customers aren't asking for it!* - Well, I am!".

Me too. As well as Martyn Davies and the commentators to his post at VoIP User.

4 comments:

  1. Markus,

    If you open yourself a free developer account with voxeo you can set up a hosted application that can be called with a special number from skype and than forward to any USA phone number or SIP URI. You can than forard your skype account to that special number and all your incoming skype calls will ring your SIP. best part is that as long as your are not using this for an commercial application it is free.

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  2. To sign up there is fairly easy. But now I need a Voxeo walkthrough to forward my Skype account to a SIP URI. Any help is very welcome. :)

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  3. Markus,

    I am not going to give you an Emoci style guide but this is the basics.

    start a evolution platform IVR application. as the first step do a cal transfer to a phone number. instead of a phone number put in: username!sipprovider.something@sbc-staging-internal you will not need anymore step in the application; make sure you hit the 'publish application' button.

    goto the application manager menu there you will find: a sip uri, a peering number for calling from FWD, and a skype number for calling your application. you can also setup phone numbers in a variety of USA cities. instead of giving your friends the long voxeo number to dial from skype I recommend forwarding a skype account to that number; that way your friends can just call your usual skypename.

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  4. you now need to activate outbound calls for the whole thing to work. but this is done in minutes -- just ask the live-chat-support.
    i described the way how to setup (in german) here:
    http://www.ip-phone-forum.de/showthread.php?t=189629

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