Comms dealers plunged into Skype hype gripe

The time-honoured practice of comms dealers, known as the Reverse Trojan, could be endangered. In an ancient ritual, phone suppliers would visit a business, install a PBX at a giveaway price, and leave.

Then, when the customer wasn't looking, the PBX would quickly spirit away as much money from the business as possible. The trick is also known as the Call Plan, Margin in Minutes and Geeks Bearing Gifts. Whatever the business paid for the hardware, and predicted for their phone bills, would be a fraction of the real deal. And they'd be tied into a two-year contract.

"I feel such a fool for believing them," a small businessman said, yesterday.

Traditionally, comms dealers have passed on the secrets of the Reverse Trojan, with its seemingly simple but fiendishly-cunning set of hidden call charges and obscure terms and conditions, for generations. Now, as a consequence of the likes of Skype and the rest of the VoIP crowd, those days might be over, some experts claim.

Surely those experts are either wrong, or being bribed, you might assume. Isn't Skype a micky-mouse system purely for consumers? Even then, it's only suitable for tightwads who'll do anything to save ten pence. If you're not calling your uncle in another continent and you're using Skype, you're just a stingy skinflint, goes one school of thought. That's just not professional, you might think.

But a new generation of tools has come on the market that could make Skype seem businesslike. Worse still, for the traditional comms dealer, they extend the life of the PBX, helping businesses to postpone a painful buying decision until something better comes on the market.

Vosky and Skype, for example, have brought out a co-branded versions of Vosky Exchange, a PBX-to-Skype gateway that means business users can make and receive Skype calls over standard office phones. Camrivox has got a similar deal with Tiscali.

The upshot is that traditional telephony is slowly being edged out. "Dealers can still make money, but they'll have to change the way they sell products," says Ian Robin, VP of Vosky. "We're looking for dealers. But if we're the future the, dealers will have to be much more open and upfront about costs."

Open and honest comms dealers? I can't see that happening. µ