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Skype Creates Custom Video Chat Software for Refugee Workers

by Terrence O'Brien on December 7, 2010 at 01:10 PM

Skype and UNHCR
Despite its uncertain future, VoIP company Skype has guaranteed itself at least a small core of customers by partnering with the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) to provide a custom, low-bandwidth video chat service to aid workers around the world. Aid workers supporting refugees are often shipped out with little notice, and can spend months at a time separated from friends and family. Skype is doing what it can to support these aid workers by creating a customized version of its VoIP software that can keep workers in touch with friends and family in areas where Internet connections are often slow and unreliable.

Skype has successfully tested the low-bandwidth communication software in Iraq, Sudan and Afghanistan, and is now opening it up to aid workers in Algeria, the Congo, Kyrgyzstan, Somalia, Sri Lanka and Uganda. By the end of 2011, Skype hopes to have connected 80-percent of the UNHCR's staffers. Skype will also be hosting a button that will allow regular Skype users to donate to charities supporting refugees. The company has been struggling in recent years to keep up with the competition, and some are wondering if its future lies with bespoke software. We're not sure that creating custom VoIP solutions is enough to keep Skype relevant, but working with the UNHCR certainly can't hurt its reputation.

Tags: aid, apps, skype, top, UN, unhcr, UnitedNationsHighCommissionForRefugees, university, voip, web

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