T-Mobile UK Blocking Mobile VoIP Start-Up

wjamesau writes "The war between telecoms and VOIP heats up: according to Om Malik, T-Mobile UK is refusing to interconnect with mobile VoIP provider Truphone, a UK start-up with a mobile VoIP client that enables calls cheaper than mobile. 'T-Mobile told Truphone, that as a result of a policy decision, they don't connect to VoIP-based low cost calling services. T-Mobile UK's decision to block Truphone might have come as a response to the new and radically better Truphone 3.0 client that allows you to send Free SMS messages and allows VoIP calls over 3G. According to M:Metrics, nearly 86% of UK mobile users are heavy SMS users, and that means it is a cash cow that carriers like T-Mobile can't afford to be slaughtered by IP-based SMS services.' Can mobile companies successfully crush VOIP competitors like this?"

Comments

Customers decisions

[nurb432]

Depends, are they stuck with a monopoly to get service? If so, they dont have much choice.

Re:Customers decisions

[Qzukk]

and go with the company that will give the 'proper' service.

And in a monopoly, that company is......

Re: Can mobile companies successfully crush VOIP c

[Dusty00]

I'm not familiar with the UK's anti-trust laws but I doubt if this is going to fly. The only reason T-Mobile has any interest in blocking them is to prevent them from gaining a market share. I'm wondering if any of T-Mobile stated their reasons for this 'policy decision' because I'd be impressed if they could fabricate anything that made sense and wasn't anti-competitive.

Re:Answer Yes, sort of

[kebes]

I agree with half your post. This is the part I agree with:

This sort of behaviour is precisely what the patent system is meant to stop;

Indeed that is what the patent system is meant to stop. This, however:

But big companies have convinced the world that patents are evil; and thus their effectiveness are being destroyed through FUD

Doesnt' sound right to me. Big companies, currently, like patents. The problem with the patent system is that it is a system. Like all systems, it has rules that can be gamed and contorted. And, as always, the people who are most able to take advantage of a system are those with the most money. Thus big companies are able to take advantage of political loopholes (e.g. lobbying) and are also able to take advantage of the patent system (e.g. flooding it with bogus patents). Big companies win the patent game because they can afford to pay the legal fees, to sue others, and to protect themselves with patent war-chests. The little guys can't.

So, in the current patent climate, the little guys would actually thrive if patents were repealed. This, to me, is why much of the debate about patents misses the mark. Even though in principle the patent system encourages innovation, in practice every system you create is yet another system that the rich (or the "currently entrenched," if you prefer) will use to prevent the poor (or the "newcomers" if you prefer) from gaining power (or money). Which is why, despite all the good that the patent system does, I believe we are reaching the point where it is inhibiting more innovation than it is encouraging.

Not quite true...

[Lanoitarus]

Youre almost certainly right that the UK courts wont allow these actions by T-Mobile. But the REAL question here is whether these actions can crush this (probably poorly funded) upstart BEFORE the slow-turning wheels of government and justice get a chance to stop them? Im betting on no-- The government will say "oh gee that was illegal" and slap them with a nominal fine, but by then it wont matter anymore. Or maybe im just a cynic.

Re: Can mobile companies successfully crush VOIP c

[russ1337]

It's one of my pet hates when "as a result of a policy decision X cannot do Y". And I've encountered it where the 'policy' was 'written(?) by the very person telling you.....

A number of times I've asked 'where is this policy written?', or 'does the person/committee that wrote the policy have the ability to make an exception?'....

Saying "as a result of a policy decision" is a cop-out. In this instance they should say "We don't want to lose our market share or go out of business by opening up to competition"

Re:Tmobile UK-CORRECTION

[Nom du Keyboard]

BTW they're the cheapest in the UK for data. £7.50 buys you a gig of date to use within the month...The £7.50 deal excludes VOIP and, bizarrely, instant messaging

Then your £7.50 buys you a gig of data to use only as they see fit!

Data bits are simply 1's and 0's. They should be in charge of moving that data, and not deciding good data from bad data.