Skype could serve as videophone software

[Alexander Turcic]

Skype CEO Niklas Zennstrom demonstrated a beta video version of the VoIP software Skype that is currently being tested internally. He did not say when the product would be ready for release, but it definitely undermines Skype's attempt of becoming a big player in the "next year" application of video telephony.

As a side note, Zennstrom also admitted that Skype utilizes some of the user's bandwidth without the latter's consent. Not sure how the big telecos offering the bandwidth will think about this:

At one point, Zennstrom affirmed claims that Skype software uses some of the computing resources and available bandwidth on a connected PC to create super groupings of network identities or nodes without user permission. The executive explained that any such practice helped the software better locate a Skype user on the network. "If I can share my computer resources and not pay my phone bill, some people think that is a good thing," he said.