Skype has revolutionized the way we make phone calls and how much we pay for it. Millions of people have used Skype and still use it today, especially when you have relatives in other countries. Personally I have a huge family outside the country I live in, and plenty of friends abroad too. I have been very thankful for having Skype, as there have always been lots of Voip programs but none of them penetrated all computer platforms the way Skype has. but what's in the future ? Several sites already report on Skype's plans to start asking for subscription fees as of january '07. As the users in the USA have been calling for free using Skype, this news hit them harder than us - it has never been free for us (I'm talking SkypeOut here, of course). As some of you might remember, I recently started using a Voip provider through a 'normal' phone, that is, one that handles Voip calls as well as landline calls making life much cheaper. This is fairly new in Europe, but I know for a fact that a lot of my relatives in the US have been doing similar things for quite some time now, saving lots and lots of dollars.
Conclusion, wil Skype dominate the telecom market ? I think not. As the protocol is propriety and closed where other Voip companies use the SIP protocol which is open and known, they will win the race. More and more equipment is available these days that will work with the SIP protocol, making Market penetration possible.