Short Report

Skype was first released in 2003 written by Estonian developers Ahti Heinla, Priit Kasesalu, and Jaan Tallinn, Danish Janus Friis, and Swedish Niklas Zennström, who originally developed Kazaa. Skype service allows users to communicate with peers by voice using a microphone, video by using a webcam, and instant messaging over the Internet. Phone calls may be placed to recipients on the traditional telephone networks. Calls to other users within the Skype service are free of charge, while calls to landline telephones and mobile phones are charged via a debit-based user account system. Skype has also become popular for its additional features, including file transfer, and videoconferencing. In order to maintain successful video messaging, competitors include SIP and H.323-based services, such as Linphone and Google Voice. By 2010 Skype developed 63 million registered users. The network is operated by Microsoft, which has its Skype division headquarters in Luxembourg. Most of the development team and 44% of the overall employees of the division are situated in Tallinn and Tartu, Estonia. Unlike most other VoIP services, Skype is a hybrid peer-to-peer and client–server system. It makes use of background processing on computers running Skype software. Skype's original proposed name (Sky Peer-to-Peer) reflects this fact. Some network administrators have banned Skype on corporate, government, home, and education networks, citing reasons such as inappropriate usage of resources, excessive bandwidth usage, and security concerns. On January 9, 2013, Microsoft revealed that it intends to retire Windows Live Messenger in favor of its Skype service, although Messenger will continue in mainland China. (Wikepedia 2013)
While its pricing is hard to beat, Skype’s affordability is indicative of the service’s overall functionality; its service plans are slim, offering little more than basic calling features. The service provides call waiting, voicemail caller ID, call forwarding and