Skype

Every increase in the value or valuation of Skype or equivalent is "an increase" in the value of the telecoms.

What users never saw was that Skype was (and always wanted to be) nothing else than a NEW TELECOM, which used new and more powerful infrastructures.

The differences were:

1) It used lines that didn't belonged to them (but customers' owned or better leased and paid for from the customers)

2) It had lower prices because it just had to charge the last mile, being the trip on the Internet already paid, leased by the customer.

3) It was going to become even a bigger monopoly than the actual ones, because most of the Telecoms, at least in Europe are national.

4) It was even worse because used proprietary protocols and codec, making it an obligation for the customer to use THEIR last mile.

If you hate monopolies and want to demolish them, YOU HAVE to propose the opposite scenario.

Free market for all the small entrepreneus who want to work and invest.

Better service, because there is competition.

Besides, I laugh thinking of a threat to the Telephone companies.

Now a day their biggest revenue IS the MOBILE market and everybody who understands a little bit of wireless understands also that WI-FI at least now, IS NOT a threat to their incomes...

May be in the future, but in a different way, not certainly building copies of the old telecoms.

What people didn't understand is the big potential of VoIP which is in the possibility of having "Customers' owned infrastructures".