VoIP-Sol News Briefs - Fri Oct 27, 2006

Skype For PocketPC Takes Off
Skype may not function on a number of mobile devices (including Symbian, PalmOS), but PocketPC-based PDAs have had Skype support since early 2004. According to the Skype website, Skype for PocketPC just passed five millon downloads since 2004. This particular mobile version of Skype now supports 60 devices from 20 manufacturers.

Comcast Cable Q3 Boom
Comcast, the US cable company, has been going gangbusters lately. Not only do they have the lead for cable VoIP subscribers in the USA, but they have plans to hire 4,000 new empoloyees. And to justify what’s been happening, they just enjoyed Q3 2006 net income of US$1.2B ($0.58/share). Word is, though that some of their Northeastern US subscribers have been suffering service outages and, being fed up, changed to competitors after only a few months.

Upgrade Your Mobile Surfing
According to a press release, the venerable free Opera web browser is now available in its “Opera Mini” form for BlackBerry and Palm mobile phones/ PDAs. Opera Mini was released in February 2006 and has already been used to view over a billion web pages. However, a quick check of my Palm Treo 650 shows that I’ve had a copy for several months - possibly an early beta edition.