Skype is a proprietary voice-over-Internet Protocol service
and software application originally created by Niklas
Zennström and Janus Friis in 2003 and owned by Microsoft since 2011.
The service allows users to communicate with peers by voice, video,
and instant messaging over the Internet. Phone calls may be placed to
recipients on the traditional telephone networks. Calls to other users
within the Skype service are free of charge, while calls to landline
telephones and mobile phones are charged via a debit-based user account
system. Skype has also become popular for its additional features,
including file transfer, and videoconferencing. Competitors
include SIP and H.323-based services, such as Linphone, Mumble, as well
as the Google Talk service.
Skype has 663 million registered users as of September 2011. The
network is operated by Microsoft, which has its Skype division
headquarters in Luxembourg. Most of the development team and 44% of the
overall employees of the division are situated
in Tallinn and Tartu, Estonia.
Unlike most other VoIP services, Skype is a
hybrid peer-to-peer and client–server system. It makes use
of background processing on computers running Skype software. Skype's
original proposed name (Sky Peer-to-Peer) reflects this fact.
Some network administrators have banned Skype on corporate, government,
home, and education networks, citing reasons such as inappropriate
usage of resources, excessive bandwidth usage, and security concerns.
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