As the number of simultaneous Skype users topples two million, audio quality starts to degrade and excitement about a great alternative to costly international calls starts to wane. My weekly calls to Australia and Europe are getting less reliable every month. It is time for Skype to step up its relationships with eager VPN providers (perhaps even the ones that have not joined the proprietary VOIP deployment) to deliver quality-of-service levels that maintain the superb voice-quality we got accustomed to during Skype's inception. I would have no problem paying a small fixed monthly service fee to improve call quality and it could turn Skype in a much more viable and profitable business. Any network provider would be eager to become the backbone of Skype's popularity. Akamai, are you listening too?

Tags: Skype, Quality