There was news in early April that Skype, the popular residential IP telephony provider, is due to expand its operations, with about 400 new staff being taken on.
The Microsoft-owned business will initially focus its efforts on two key European bases, according to a BBC report, in Stockholm and the UK capital. It will later create new posts in Prague in Czech Republic, Tallinn in Estonia as well as back in the US in the digital heartland of Palo Alto in California.
The London centre is set to become a technological hub for Skype in Europe, and the new posts created will boost the company’s number in the city to 330.
Worldwide, the employment drive will increase global staff numbers by a third, to 1,600.
The success the company has enjoyed over recent years is indicative of the growth that VoIP has seen as a whole. From villages in the scrub lands of Africa, to high-rise offices in the world’s major cities, it is not hard to find someone that uses it regularly.
Consumer use of the facility has largely been driven by the popularity of business VoIP, with many business leaders and entrepreneurs recognising the cost effectiveness and many other benefits there are to be enjoyed.
Confirming the expansion plans, the vice-president for the company Rick Osterloh said that most of the new roles will be in the design, product management and software engineering departments.
He went on to tell the BBC:
“We have one project about ‘big data’ … and also a number of initiatives we are working on in the web area…”
With a new Xbox division too, the recruitment drive will clearly be looking for highly skilled tech professionals.
The lengthy process is due to last several months, with the first stage not likely to be completed until the end of June 2012.
