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T-Mobile Releases New Card, Outlaws VoIP and IM
An anonymous reader writes "T-Mobile has launched a new 3G data card in the UK, and banned users from using it for VoIP or instant messaging applications." From the article: "Lock cast doubt on the sustainable viability of a mobile operator banning VoIP from its network. 'I think that eventually, if there's customer demand for this, it will happen," Lock said. "Other organizations will come along allowing VoIP. Who do you think is going to win?'"
A ban on IM alone will ensure that no one uses their product. I think that I am currently the only person in the US who isn't on AIM/MSN/Yahoo/IRC. I would love to be able to listen to their customer support calls: "C: AIM isn't working. S: We don't support AIM. C: We seem to have a bad connection, you don't what?!" Do they have their own private IM service they are planning on offering?
Philosophy.
cheap local government-backed citywide wifi will win
you don't make money as a telephone carrier by allowing people to have telephone conversations without paying you. you don't make money going form a 0.99/ min model to a 39.99/ mo model. so you don't let them use voip
so you drive your customers to wifi
the customer is always right, and the customer has discovered he can pay less
who wants to make the next must-have killer gadget? who wants to make the next must-have ipod?
you, whomever you are, who makes a small, sexy, cheap voip via wifi phone wins that distinction and that wad of cash
gentleman, start your engines, the race is on
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
I can understand banning VOIP. Not that everybody's going to like it, but it's at least rational. They're in the business of providing telephone service, after all. But I can't even imagine being online without having IM service running in the background, it's so central to how I work now. Why would you provide internet service and then ban that? Just because you get $.10 a text message, which nobody is going to be sending and receiving with a laptop anyway?
It seems likely that a large percentage of the people who get this service will end up violating the agreement without even thinking about it, just because it's habit.
Well as long as ssh isn't blocked they'll never know someone isn't using an IM/IRC client (thanks to naim/irssi/screen on a remote server).
The point of cards like this from the standpoint of the cell companies, is to enable business workers. They won't get away with outlawing VPN connections, and thus my own use of VoIP would simply transit the VPN. FOK THEM.
The problem with quotes on the internet, is that nobody bothers to check their veracity. -- Abraham Lincoln
it is the death of american productivity and economic growth if shortsighted entrenched corporate interests are allowed to squash innovation with armies of lawyers
then the sun will set on the usa, defeated not from without by terrorism, but defeated from within by rapacious greed consuming american ingenuity and therefore economic growth
you know the telcos, riaa, mpaa, and cable companies would squash arpanet in the 1970s if they saw where we were going
i'll say that again: if it were up to entrenched corporate interests, there would be no internet
entrenched corporate interests would rather no more technological progress happen
it messes with their entrenched business models
god forbid uncertainty and risk enter their accounting sheets
no, we should all give up progress so there is no uncertainty in large corporation's financial outlook, right?
they are working hard to squash innovation, and given enough time and pressure, they might succeeed
and then it is good morning india and china, new captains of industry, with more pragmatic approaches to ip law and technological innovation
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
Not necessarily. Yahoo! Messenger for example has also an option to use voice...
I don't know why VOIP would be functionally useless above 150ms unless it was designed incorrectly. I routinely have longer round trim latency than that on my cell phone calls from California to Tennessee, and that's basically POTS most of the way. A phone call from one side of the planet to the other that takes a satellite hop will have four times that much round trip latency at a minimum.
Who do you think is going to win?
No idea who will win. All I know is that if a telecom is involved, the general public are likely to lose. :-)
Check out my sci-fi/humor trilogy at PatriotsBooks.
Oh an Anonymous Coward. I'm sure T-mobile are quaking in their boots right now.
It's their network, they can apply all the restrictions they like. You don't like it? Go elsewhere.
Deleted
There is no such thing as to much bandwidth. Never forget that. :)
I generally like T-Mobile. Unlike Verizon, they don't hobble the BlueTooth on their phones. I can upload and download files to my computer without using the network. I can take all the MP3s on my computer and use them for ring tones. I can use my phone to transfer files. Most importantly, I can sync my cellphone with the phonebook on my computer. Verizon makes all sorts of excuses why they can't let you connect your BlueTooth phone directly to your computer, but it mainly has to do with selling ringtones and charging you for sending pictures back and forth between your phone and your computer.
Unlike ATT/Cingular, T-Mobile also haven't changed my terms of service multiple times without telling me, "extended" my contract without telling me, or charged me for things that are suppose to be included in my service. Last time I had ATT, they suddenly decided that my house was located in a "roaming" area and charged me 50 cents per minute for using my cellphone.
At least T-Mobile is being pretty up front about the whole thing -- not allowing IM and VOIP is strictly a business decision. They've concluded that most business users aren't heavy users of IM and VOIP, and by not offering these services, they can prevent non-business users from signing up. I bet its more to make sure they don't oversubscribe the network more than anything else. Allowing VOIP and IM would probably more than double the number of people who'd want to sign up.
I also find hope that T-Moble says this is not necessarily a permanent decision. If their customers demand it, they'll open up the service to VOIP and IM. I bet you they do this with in 12 to 18 months. Once the service gets going, and they increase the available bandwidth, they'll start to welcome non-business users.
"I would like to be the first one to say this:
*** Screw you, T-Mobile! ***
I do whatever I want with my hardware. I won't let a company dictate terms to me. Period. I will either find some competitor of yours, or I will hack my way through your restrictions, thumb my nose at you, and help others do the same."
When I see these sorts of posts on Slashdot, I am amazed at the disconnect some people have from reality - you know, folks who complain about Netflix throttling their extremely heavy use, Comcast warning people about using a Terabyte of bandwidth monthly, etc.
Do you just not get that T-Mobile is HAPPY when customers like you leave? You cost them significant amounts of money! For that matter, other T-Mobile customers (like me) will be happy to have you hop on over to Cingular or Verizon, since we're subsidizing you.
When a money sink decides to stop patronizing a business, the company has to say the usual "we're sorry to see you go" platitudes; but behind the scenes they're popping the champagne corks.
#DeleteChrome
The issue is deeper than that; its the fact that capitalism has failed. We should just cut our losses and put an end to this miserable system before we're really screwed.
Yes, let's jump out of the frying pan and into the fire (socialism, communism for example). Capitalism is not perfect, far from it actually. Considering all the alternatives that have been tried, capitalism is the most successful and still continues to be so.
You are right about one thing however, something has failed. It's the people that have failed. They've failed to give a damn about their future. Such attitudes of complacency will destroy a civilization regardless of the forms of governance that it embodies.
For freedom to succeed, we all must be ever vigilant!
Life is not for the lazy.