T-Mobile UK has taken against Skype and other VoIP applications - at least as far as its new Web ‘n’ Walk Professional mobile internet access airtime package goes. According to the company’s service terms and conditions, it’s none too keen on instant messaging either.
As low-priced Internet phone services for mobile devices emerge, users should first check the fine print in their cell phone contracts to see if they can take advantage of such offerings. There’s a chance they can’t.
A quick read of the carrier’s Web ‘n’ Walk Professional webpage reveals that “use of Voice over Internet Protocol and Messaging over Internet Protocol over the service is prohibited by T-Mobile. If use of either or both of these services is detected, T-Mobile may terminate all contracts with the customer and disconnect any SIM cards and/or Web ‘n’ Walk cards from the T-Mobile network”.
T-Mobile International, which has mobile phone operations in Europe and the United States, is among the first companies to ban the use of VoIP over its networks. Its Web ‘n’ Walk professional service expressly prohibits such usage, and the company reserves the right to terminate contracts.
Like many other mobile phone companies, T-Mobile wants to protect its telephone service from new providers of VoIP-over-mobile services, such as Mino Wireless USA.
Last week, the Sunnyvale, California, company launched one of the world’s first commercial VoIP-over-mobile services, offering fees as low as $0.02 per minute for international calls.
Compared to the $1 per minute or more mobile phone users in many countries currently pay to make international calls, it makes sense that T-Mobile’s quaking in its boots.
Mino joins other VoIP heavyweights, such as Skype, a unit of eBay. Earlier this year, Skype announced a VoIP partnership with Hutchison 3 Group, which operates IP-based mobile broadband networks in several European markets. The Skype mobile VoIP application runs on Microsoft’s Windows Mobile software.
Mobile VoIP startup Iskoot, which is located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is also working with Skype to allow users to make or receive Internet calls with their mobile phones.
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