How XCast ties in Skype with its hosted PBX platform
Ever since Skype announced support for IP PBXs, we have seen some interest in how best to tie in Skype in the PBX environment. Integrating Skype can be tricky because Skype is a P2P application. XCast Labs is a hosted VoIP provider that recently announced $2.7 million funding. This is how they tie in Skype:
1. Skype user dials Skype-to-Skype call using Skype username of matrix.us.
2. Call goes to XCast hosted platform, where the company has a gateway that does Skype to SIP translation.
3. XCast then prompts the caller to enter the XCast phone number they wish to call. Thereafter there is an onnet transfer. Pretty much like calling a PBX auto-attendant and entering a long extension number.
4. XCast platform sees the Skype user name that is calling and assigns them permanently an internal XSID (XCast-Skype ID). XCast customers can dial that XSID and XCast platform translates the SIP call into an outbound Skype-to-Skype call to the Skype user name that is linked to the XSID. The XSID is a number that has no possible conflict with any PSTN number.
Dialing with a username other than your own is obviously not convenient. Gateway translation, which is how most developers have so far been handling Skype integration, sounds like old days of PC-to-Phone. Assigning unique number to Skype caller sounds like inefficient use of resources.
XCast has obviously made a bold attempt to integrate Skype into its platform. I am sure the funding is not for the Skype integration. We have not seen any platform companies that have been able to seamlessly integrate Skype due to its P2P nature. Ideally speaking Skype would have to build PBX features by itself and sell a virtual PBX services package.
XCast is a voice+video telephony service provider serving 50,000 voice lines. It carries about 50 million minutes of traffic per month. With the help of recent funding the service provider plans to triple its network capacity to be able to handle 10m minutes per day. The company also plans to target Apple iPhone users with video telephony apps.
