The web-based phone service Skype says Australia needs to reconsider its approach to allocating phone numbers to allow for numbers not linked to an address. … more

Skype this week will start offering plans to let users call international wireline and wireless phones at significantly lower rates than its current pay-as-you-go services. … more

Outbound-only Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) subscribers will soon be able to sign-up for a chosen geographic number, under legislation amendments proposed in a discussion paper released by the Australian Media and Communications Authority (ACMA). … more

The Australian Communications and Media Authority is proposing to change numbering rules to improve flexibility in the Numbering Plan to recognise some of the realities of newer services, such as Voice over Internet Protocol (VOIP) services. … more

Australian Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and telecommunication carriers have shrugged off any notion that free Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) services such as Skype are threatening their businesses. … more

The bitter battle over the future of the Internet calling service Skype appears to be nearing an end. … more

Steve Largent, president of wireless association CTIA, told reporters Thursday that his trade group will use the FCC’s recently announced notices of inquiry on innovation and competition in the mobile marketplace to share his industry’s success story. Having a fact-based examination, which FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski requested at last week’s Commission meeting, will “be a good thing for our industry,” Largent said. Genachowski has faced pressure from Congress and smaller telecom firms to investigate whether firms like AT&T, Verizon and Sprint Nextel are unfairly dominating the space. … more

Some computer viruses have a crude but scary ability to spy on people by logging every keystroke they type. Now hackers and potentially law enforcement have another weapon: a virus that can eavesdrop on voice conversations that go over computers instead of a regular phone line. … more

Players in communication markets are no longer the traditional alternative operators providing voice services, but a range of service providers including Internet Service Providers and cable television service providers who provide VoIP services and broadband access. This paper assembles some evidence on developments in investment by incumbent and alternative telecommunications operators during the period 2000-2005. … more

Russia’s most powerful business lobby moved to clamp down on Skype and its peers this week, telling lawmakers that the Internet phone services are a threat to Russian businesses and to national security. … more