Presence and IntComm WG

[Candace Holman <>]

Here's another announcement on dual-mode cellular/voip convergence with 
presence capabilities:

The press release exclaim: iSkoot’s Complimentary Offering is a 
Peer-to-Peer Network Connecting Cell Phones to PC Calls Without Custom 
Phones, PCs or Wi-Fi [1], and that it is as easy as "Download the FREE 
iSkootMobile phone application to your cell phone, log on to your 
Internet chat service, such as Skype™, and start calling your online 
buddies. The iSkootMobile Network uses your mobile phone's voice 
network, so it works wherever your mobile phone works."

It's only for Nokia Series 60 phones, Cingular/Cingular MEdiaNet and 
Skype customers right now, but will be coming soon to Google Talk and 
Yahoo Messenger, other Nokia phones, Motorola RAZR and Palm Treo 650. [2]

In a October 2005 Wireless Week article [3] the question was whether 
carriers would consider this a revenue-draining threat, but it's pretty 
clear that this will generate revenue on the data downloads, or at least 
Cingular's betting on it. Hopefully the description of how the service 
worked back then is out of date. Otherwise this would be much like Eqo, 
[4] except it has a better binding with a carrier, and 8 patents pending.

Brough Turner is one of their Advisors, and they are based in Cambridge, MA.

Candace Holman


Press release
[1] http://www.iskoot.com/pressreleases/prnetwork_2.13.06.htm

Requirements
[2] http://www.iskoot.com/trynow.htm

Cell Meets Skype
[3] 
http://www.wirelessweek.com/index.asp?layout=articlePrint&articleID=CA6261695

Eqo
[4] http://www.eqo.com/download_how.html