After graduating from college, he spent two years as a legislative director for Sen. Silverman, 40, is no stranger to Washington.
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Google’s telecom lobbyist, Rick Whitt, said Skype’s policy philosophy is similar to Google’s, including letting consumers choose the applications and devices they want to use and letting third-party software developers innovate without roadblocks set up by wireless operators and cell phone manufacturers. It joined companies like Google, Amazon and PayPal in the Open Internet Coalition, which has been advocating for net neutrality regulations, and the Voice on the Net (VON) Coalition, which pushes for policies that promote Web-enabled phone services. Skype has certainly not been absent from the open-network debate over the past few years.
The deal has largely been seen as good news for Skype, allowing it to explore new directions and grow as an independent company. eBay will continue to own 35 percent of Skype. This month, eBay announced it is selling the majority of its stake in Skype to private investors for $1.9 billion in cash and a $125 million loan. “And as many members of the Internet community and key congressional leaders have noted, there are compelling reasons to be concerned about the future of openness.”Ĭhanges in Skype’s management will allow it to take a more active role in telecom policy discussions. “We have witnessed certain broadband providers unilaterally block access to phone calls delivered over data networks and implement technical measures that degrade the performance of peer-to-peer software distributing lawful content,” he said. Silverman said many other networks around the world still block Skype’s service, a point also raised by FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski as he introduced his proposal for new net neutrality regulations. In response to an inquiry from the FCC regarding applications it allows, AT&T said it plans to “take a fresh look” at allowing consumers to make Web-based calls on its network via services such as Skype. Some consumers have complained that they can’t make Skype calls on Apple’s iPhone using AT&T’s network. Not all phone companies have welcomed Skype, which allows consumers to make low-cost calls over the Internet, thus undercutting standard phone rates for long-distance calls. Right now it’s the carriers who dictate what people are allowed to do with their phone. “In a world where your personal computer fits in your pocket, people demand choice of any software they want to load on that and any website you want to visit. “The way we see the world is not that phones are getting more powerful but that computers are getting smaller,” Silverman said. Skype said the rules would promote innovation, just as they did 40 years ago when the same principle was applied to the nation’s telephone network, letting consumers attach a range of types of devices to copper lines, eventually leading to cordless phones and modems for dial-up Internet access. In early 2007, Skype filed a petition with the FCC asking that the agency require wireless carriers to allow consumers to attach any device to wireless networks and use any application, as long as they did not harm the networks. Skype was one of the first companies to push for open-Internet regulations. It’s only through that virtuous cycle that we can proceed.”
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“But it’s only with an open and free Internet that we can develop the applications like Skype that have caused people to want to pay for faster, better, more reliable Internet.
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“The focus has been on how to make sure access providers can continue to provide access to more people,” Silverman said Monday while speaking at the Brookings Institution. Now that regulators in Washington are paying attention to the role broadband will play in the nation’s economic recovery, Skype plans to be active in those discussions. Private investors have agreed to pay $1.9 billion for the service, which was acquired by eBay four years ago. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is also crafting a plan to expand broadband service to underserved regions.īoth issues are key to Skype’s survival as it prepares to become an independent company. The nation’s top communications regulator on Monday proposed new rules that would force Internet and wireless companies to treat all Web traffic equally, a principle known as net neutrality. Silverman is chief executive of Skype, the popular service that allows free or cheap international calls over the Internet, and telecommunications policymakers are going to be seeing more of him in the months to come. But first, companies like his need to be free toĬreate the services people will want to use. Josh Silverman says his company helps drive the adoption of high-speed
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