Martin Geddes talks about his idea of a Skype user facilitating local PSTN connectivity for another Skype user. Pulver Innovations sells a product called Internet Phone Patch, with password protection and the like. If Skype client is programmable, then what Martin envisions can be done. Probably Skype will include this in a later release.
Interestingly, I thought of the same idea when I read that a European cordless phone manufacturer (turned out to be Siemens, but without the patching capability) is going to make a Skype compatible device. I even developed an elaborate economic system (have to come up with some business plan for Skype; the more devious, the better) where Skype users can exchange tokens to allow for calls to be completed through their device. Added to the problem Martin identifies, there is an additional problem. The calling user can not, in general trust the user that is patching the call. Since the call goes out on the open PSTN line, the calling user has no assurance of privacy (even among friends, especially friends, I guess). That is why, I am skeptical of general use of this feature.
Posted by aswath at March 19, 2004 03:11 PM