The
launch of the Skypephone by mobile operator 3 looks set to change the
way the mobile telecoms industry looks at VoIP. So far its attitude has
been less than friendly, as evidenced by reports not long ago of orange mobile
operators only allowing a VoIP-enabled device onto their networks after
it had been knobbled so that users couldn’t access the service.
The device in question was Nokia’s N95 smartphone. Now some operators looked at this VoIP-friendly handset and took an instant disliking. They decided their business models couldn’t handle voice revenues being nibbled at, so using a firmware scalpel they performed a bypass operation. When people objected the operators made a big noise about the quality of the VoIP service not being up to their exacting standards, but essentially they had concluded: cheap mobile VoIP calls over their network equals bad; revenue-earning mobile calls over their network equals good.
3 has put the boot into that model in an attempt to entice subscribers to its network and 3 says it will be trying for both pre-pay and contract customers. Subscribers need to spend £45 for a single 3Skype phone, or £89 for a pair, and then spend at least £10 a month topping it up. If we assume that call quality is OK and 3 says that Skype calls are carried over its network as standard 3G voice calls and then carried over the internet to other Skype users then the future looks bright for 3 and maybe not for Orange at all.
The device in question was Nokia’s N95 smartphone. Now some operators looked at this VoIP-friendly handset and took an instant disliking. They decided their business models couldn’t handle voice revenues being nibbled at, so using a firmware scalpel they performed a bypass operation. When people objected the operators made a big noise about the quality of the VoIP service not being up to their exacting standards, but essentially they had concluded: cheap mobile VoIP calls over their network equals bad; revenue-earning mobile calls over their network equals good.
3 has put the boot into that model in an attempt to entice subscribers to its network and 3 says it will be trying for both pre-pay and contract customers. Subscribers need to spend £45 for a single 3Skype phone, or £89 for a pair, and then spend at least £10 a month topping it up. If we assume that call quality is OK and 3 says that Skype calls are carried over its network as standard 3G voice calls and then carried over the internet to other Skype users then the future looks bright for 3 and maybe not for Orange at all.
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