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[law.com] A state judge in Suffolk County has ordered a mother to make her two children available for Skype online video conferencing with their father as a condition of her move to Florida.

The decision marks the first reported New York case in which a judge has ordered a relocating parent to facilitate Skyping — i.e., the use of Skype conferencing software — between her children and her ex-spouse as a condition of her move, according to a Westlaw search.

“The Petitioner, at her own cost and expense, will see to it, prior to re-location, that the Respondent, as well as the children, are provided the appropriate internet access via a Skype device which allows a real time broadcast of communications between the Respondent and his children,” Supreme Court Justice Jerry Garguilo wrote in Baker v. Baker, 29610-2007.

The parties, James and Debra Baker, were married in 2000 and divorced in 2008. They have a 9-year-old son and a 6-year-old daughter.

The Bakers’ marital home is in foreclosure and Ms. Baker, a bookkeeper, has been unemployed since she was laid off in December. Mr. Baker works for a construction company and has a take-home salary of $600 per month.

Earlier this year, Ms. Baker asked the court for permission to move to Venice Beach, Fla., to live with her parents and seek full-time employment.

Mr. Baker, a recovering alcoholic who recently underwent surgery for bladder cancer, opposed the move.

Garguilo held a two-day hearing in July.

“The Respondent pled with the Court not to take his children away as he loves them dearly and is now sufficiently rehabilitated to become a permanent presence in their lives,” Garguilo wrote.

In a decision last week, the judge granted the wife’s petition and, in an apparent first for New York, ordered her to use Skype.

“Common sense, logic and a realistic view of life on Long Island clearly indicate that the Petitioner and children cannot maintain a residence, heat, clothe themselves, provide for transportation and enjoy only the basic necessities on the monies that are currently available,” the judge wrote. “The relocation is conditional. [T]he Petitioner will make the children available three times per week for not less than one hour per connection to communicate via Skype with their father.”

Jennifer H. Goody of Wand, Powers & Goody in Huntington represented Ms. Baker.

Goody said Ms. Baker was not opposed to the Skype condition.

“That was something the judge came up with himself to foster the relationship,” Goody said. “I think the judge was trying to strike a balance to make sure the children have a relationship with their father.”

Solo-practitioner Bruce P. Vetri of Bayport represented Mr. Baker. Vetri did not return a call for comment.

Ex-Wife Ordered to Provide Skype Access for Husband, Kids

[juniper research] The number of mobile VoIP minutes carried annually on 3G and 4G networks will rise from 15 billion minutes in 2010 to 470.6 billion by 2015, finds a new report from Juniper Research.

Mobile VoIP traffic will see steady rises in all regions over the forecast period, but particularly in developed markets, due to the increasing ubiquity of 3G networks.

“There are several flavours of mobile VoIP,” says Anthony Cox, Senior Analyst at Juniper Research, noting that operators fear losing traffic to WiFi networks most: “WiFi mobile VoIP is potentially the most damaging of all VoIP traffic as it bypasses the mobile networks altogether,” he says. “We forecast that mobile VoIP over WiFi will cost operators $5 billion globally by 2015,” says Cox.

Other options for mobile VoIP carriage are via carrier alliances with mobile VoIP providers, or though an app downloaded to the handset or smartphone.

Further findings include:
• Competitive and regulatory pressure will mean that traditional operators in developed markets will increasingly “bury the hatchet” and forge partnerships with VoIP providers.
• Operator revenues from circuit switched voice will continue to diminish over the next five years, though the rate of decline will not accelerate.
• The market opportunity for high definition voice and advertising-based mobile voice services will be limited for the foreseeable future.

That Mobile VoIP is reaching the top of the agenda for mobile operators is borne out by the recent launch of Skype over 3G networks and its deal earlier this year with US operator Verizon. Operator sentiment varies however: “Even though a major operator, 3UK, touts the benefits of mobile VoIP, it will take some time for many operators, particularly in emerging markets, to accept it, since it represents loss of control over their own networks,” says Cox.

Annual Mobile VoIP Minutes to Double Each Year, Reaching 470.6bn by 2015, According to Juniper Research

[juniperresearch] Technology will ease 3G network congestion but streamed services will still need further capacity relief as support for dedicated mobile broadcast networks fades

Hampshire, UK – 6th July 2010: A new report published today by Juniper Research has found that a surge in applications which can take advantage of the increasing availability of free WiFi services are set to boost a mobile TV industry with anticipated revenues of nearly $7 billion by 2015.

According to the report, mobile TV traffic over WiFi is expected to increase by 25x over the 2010-2015 period as streamed service penetration and usage levels – also fuelled by consumer smartphone adoption – rise sharply. However, the report notes that despite the capacity relief that WiFi offers to cellular networks, greater mobile TV usage will still place the 3G and 3.5G networks under stress.

As report author Dr Windsor Holden pointed out, “Cellular networks are finding it increasingly difficult to deliver high quality mobile TV services at times of peak usage: thus, the World Cup has posed particular problems with large spikes in viewing figures. WiFi can ameliorate this in the short term, but this is only a partial remedy.”

The report suggests that while the deployment of LTE networks should reduce congestion, the use of unpaired spectrum – as in the forthcoming IMB trials by Vodafone, Orange and O2 – might be an alternative or complementary solution.

However, Juniper is less sanguine about the prospects for dedicated mobile broadcast technologies such as DVB-H, citing the availability of handsets capable of receiving analogue or digital terrestrial signals, the economic downturn and changing consumer viewing habits among the reasons why such networks are widely perceived as being financially unviable.

WiFi to bring mobile TV to the masses with revenues reaching $7bn by 2015, Juniper’s Latest Research finds

[juniper research] As network operators and vendors increasingly deploy their own dedicated app stores, a new Juniper Research report has found that the annual number of consumer-oriented handset downloads is expected to rise from less than 2.6 billion in 2009 to more than 25 billion in 2015.

According to the Mobile App Stores report, players across the mobile value chain are seeking to emulate Apple’s success with the App Store by launching own-brand storefronts, such as ‘Mobile Market’ from China Unicom, ‘Airtel App Central’ from Bharti and the ‘Apps & Games Shop’ on Vodafone 360. Furthermore, the transition to an app-centric environment has also benefited more established storefronts such as GetJar, which passed 1 billion downloads earlier this month.

However, the Juniper report cautioned that players seeking to launch app stores would need to demonstrate sufficient scale to be able to induce developers to provide them with unique content. As report author Dr Windsor Holden observed, “Apple has been able to achieve several billion downloads from a comparatively small handset base because customers are buying the iPhone for the apps. That’s not been the case with other handsets. So even if you have a subscriber base of tens of millions, your addressable market is a fraction of that – and spread across a variety of operating systems and handsets”.

The report also noted that freemium was becoming the prevalent business model, with publishers increasingly offering applications free at point of sale and subsequently monetising them via in-app billing of subscription-based services, upgrades to premium content or micropayments for virtual items.

Mobile App Store Downloads to Reach 25 billion by 2015, Juniper Report finds