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

Can mobile companies successfully crush VOIP com?

[Bomarc]

Question: Can mobile companies successfully crush VOIP competitors like this?
Answer: Yes
Question: Can mobile companies successfully crush VOIP competitors like this LEGALLY?
Answer: The courts can decied
- or -
The customers and decide.... (for or against!)

Not in the UK

[denoir]

In an unregulated market system the mobile companies could do exactly that, but given that this is the UK, I doubt it. Even if it by some miracle would pass UK legal scrutiny, it will be shot down at the EU level as breaking a number of anti-trust laws.

The mobile operators are already in the EU's cross hairs and they've been forced this year to essentially remove the roaming charges for calls between EU states. The commission also indicated that that was just the first step of bringing the mobile operators under control as they are today running wild and ripping off their customers.

Personally, I hope they come down on them like a ton of bricks as they really are ripping of their customers. For instance locally, here in Sweden I pay an acceptable 20/month for limitless 3G data traffic. If I take my phone to Belgium, my gangster of a mobile operator charges 10 per MB. It's quite absurd what they have been getting away with so far.

Re:Yup

[Golias]

Only if the other providers play ball.

"What's that, T-Mobile won't let you talk to VOIP users? Come to OUR phone service. We don't cripple our phones. You can talk to anybody."

All it takes is a critical mass of users of these new phones, say 5 percent of poor teenagers who don't want expensive phone plans. Then it switches from "VOIP phones can't call T-Mobile users" to "T-Mobile phones can't work with VOIP users", which would pretty much spell the end of T-Mobile in the UK.

Technology is on the verge of surpassing the cell phone business model. All it will take is a few tiny third-world countries to take a small chunk of WFO money and build a nation-wide free Wi-Fi network, supporting VOIP phones for anybody who can afford one, and soon a lot of slightly bigger countries will see that proof-of-concept and start asking, "why not here?" Things could really snowball from there. In fact, were I a Rich Bastard trying to launch a service like that, I'd probably bankroll some infrastructure myself in a couple highly-visible small nations... say Dubai, South Korea, or the like. Let everybody see just how good we could all have it, and see what that sets in motion.

Re:Tmobile UK-CORRECTION

[Threni]

> 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.

They should be allowed to do whatever is morally acceptable. They have a duty to their shareholders or owners to make as much money as possible. As informed consumers we are free to form contracts with whoever offers us a product/service we desire at a price and with conditions we find acceptable. I find TMobile's contract satisfactory, and so I remain with them.

You're free to offer a rival service, but good luck providing people with a way of undercutting your pricing policy. The argument reminds me of people who complain that wine is too expensive in restaurants. If the price of wine was reduced to only a couple of pounds above what it costs in the shops then obviously the restaurant is going to either have to increase the price of the food, or make less money.

text messages

[rhinokitty]

Tmobile also refuses to deactivate text messages for any reason. I receive a few unwanted text messages every month and never use text messages myself. They are only about ten cents each, but the fact that Tmobile refuses to turn off text messaging is annoying, but makes perfect sense.

Nickel and dime has a new meaning when you multiply that small fee times the number of subscribers they have globally. I know it is technologically possible, but they pretend that it isn't. Cingular was able to turn off text messages on my last plan.

Re:Tmobile UK-CORRECTION

[elyk]

I agree, and I'd like to think that this is a well-supported principle, but the recent AT&T announcement seems to suggest otherwise. It's for different reasons, but at the base level, they're not that different.