22 November 2006

With millions of users worldwide, Skype is arguably the most popular consumer-level voice over IP (VoIP) implementation on the planet. As of the end of last year, Skype, now owned by eBay, had more than 50 million users according to many reports — and more than 200 million downloads.

Most credit Skype with bringing VoIP to the masses. One big reason for its popularity is that it's freeware — at least, if you don't need to be able to receive calls from regular phones.

Is Skype just a toy for home users and techie types who don't want to pay for a "real" VoIP service, or does it have something to offer businesses? Let's take a closer look at the peer-to-peer VoIP software from the same people who brought us the KaZaA file-sharing program.