OpenSky Opens Skype, But Does It Work?

Filed under: Services,voip - 24 Mar 2009 11:37

openskyI’m sure you’ve probably read all about Skype for Asterisk and Skype’s newly announced Skype-for-SIP service. Neither of these offerings are available today or geared at individual users. Michael Robertson’s OpenSky, which makes it possible to integrate Skype with any SIP-compliant device or service, is available as part of Gizmo5, is both available today and individual users can sign up.

opensky-forward-from-skypeThe folks at Gizmo5 were nice enough to comp me an account so I could give it a try. Here’s how it works. First off, you have to sign up for a Gizmo5 account, which is free. Next, go to your members page and configure OpenSky to forward Skype calls to your Gizmo5 account.

Once that’s setup, you can either use an official Gizmo5 client, Gizmo5 on your mobile, or any SIP device you want to make calls to the SIP URI skypename@opensky.gizmo5.com. Conversely, people calling your SkypeID will get their calls forwarded to your Gizmo5/SIP client.

I had some difficulty making or receiving Skype calls until I set up the Skype call forwarding on my Gizmo5 account page. Once I did that, I found that making and receiving Skype calls worked. CallerID worked in both directions, meaning whoever was calling me on Skype showed up in CallerID as well as when I make a Skype call through OpenSky, my own SkypeID showed properly.

The one thing I’ve noticed when using OpenSky to forward Skype calls is that my presence indicator is no longer accurate. It always shows me as “online” even when my Skype client is disconnected. Not entirely sure what happens when my I reconnect with my Skype client. Do I get any IMs? Can I set my Skype status? Can I control my Skype presence indicator with OpenSky?

In any case, Gizmo5 works as advertised, though clearly some more work is needed on the Skype presence piece. Gizmo5 allows you to make calls to and from Skype for free for up to 5 minutes. If you want longer calls, it will cost you $20 a year. Less per-account in blocks of 50 or more.

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4 Comments

  1. Comment by Jason

    Yeah, since Gizmo5/SIPPhone is running a Skype client. The Skype client with the ‘online’ status rules the roost. Skype appears to have a cascading precedence for which client state, when running multiple clients, takes charge. I have noticed this behavior with my Netgear WiFi phone and my desktop Skype client.

    Would be nice if there was a Skype feature to set a client as the ‘master’ status regardless of how many clients you may have connected.

  2. Comment by spg

    this is a much better product than what i had though. i tried it after the initial announcement and was only able to make outbound call; an dthey all had ‘opensky’ caller ID’s.

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