Skype to roll out made-for-India app for low-speed mobile networks

[mmadhankumar]

Internet-based video and voice call giant Skype is planning to roll out an India-specific version of the company’s application which has been especially designed to work on the country’s low-speed 2G and 3G mobile phone networks, and on mobile phones with limited processor speeds, company spokesperson Filipp Seljano told The Indian Express on Thursday.

The new Skype application, Seljano said, was the outcome of research conducted by a Skype team which tested several voice and video-over-internet applications on Indian networks, and found competitors like Viber were providing better service.

“India’s 2G and 3G network, as well as the mix of phones in use, poses very specific challenges for us,” Seljano explained. “The new application will be much lighter than the one now available, and will require far less computation resources and memory.”

Microsoft-owned Skype hopes the application will lead to wider application on low-end Windows-powered Nokia’s Asha and Lumia models, popular in India.

India, Skype believes, is among its most important future markets. The company has several Indian-origin executives in key positions, notably corporate vice-president Gurdeep Singh Pall.

The firm’s plans to expand its market in India come amidst an intense debate on net neutrality, with mobile phone companies complaining that voice-over-internet services that ride on their networks are eating into their revenues.


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