First-order effects

• Businesses evaluating Skype or Viber gain a third option priced as a global calling plan but differentiated purely on end-to-end encryption — Silent Circle is asking corporate buyers to pay for privacy rather than accept it free without it.
• Skype and Viber now face an explicit privacy-first challenger at the moment Skype is forcing its installed base through mandatory client upgrades, a window where switching friction is unusually visible.

Second-order effects

• Incumbents whose model depends on controlling the client and monetizing scale will be pushed to answer the security question — either by adding stronger encryption claims or by leaning harder on features (group video, cross-device reach) that a small rival cannot match.
• Telecom-style flat-rate global calling undercuts traditional international long-distance pricing, pulling carriers' roaming and IDD revenue into the same fight as VoIP incumbents.

Third-order effects

• If buyers treat encryption as a purchasing criterion rather than a specialist feature, secure communications stops being a niche product category and becomes table stakes — forcing every mass-market messaging service to compete on trust architecture, not just price.
• A privacy-focused hardware-plus-network stack like Blackphone plus Silent Phone points toward vertical integration as the credible way to sell security, since each layer must vouch for the other.