Nokia's recent announcement of putting Skype in its flagship N97 has reportedly irked some network operators, and may lead to the Finns being forced to strip the service out.
According to Mobile Today, O2 and Orange are understood to be very angry at Nokia trying to 'freeze them out' by allowing users to make calls over the mobile internet, thus circumventing the operators' voice price plans and ultimately costing them money.
Mobile Today is reporting an 'unnamed operator source' as saying: "This is another example of them trying to build an ecosystem that is all about Nokia and reduces the operator to a dumb pipe.
Dumb pipe
"Some people like 3 may be in a position where it could make sense to accept that. But if you spend upwards of £40m per year building your brand, you don't want to be just a dumb pipe do you?
"Nokia have tried several ways to own the customer over the years and operators have had to say no."
The arguments may even involve Nokia making an embarrassing climbdown over the Skype service, as it looks to maintain operator relations.
3 has championed the Skype model on its recent models (the Skypephone 1 and 2 and the INQ1 Facebook phone) but other networks are less willing to work with the service.
Via Mobile Today
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devolution
March 3rd 2009
1. I don't think the Networks should ultimately worry at all.
Firstly out of all the people that go for the N97 only a small percentage will ever use all it's features and only a minority will use Skype. GSM call quality still remains king unless you are in a populated area or big city.
To use Skype it makes sense to be on an unlimited data tariff. To get one of these you normally need to be on a premium contract, probably one over £30, so the networks have already got your money. For that sort of contract you will almost certainly have unlimited texts and 600+ minutes of calls.
Those who manage to use all their free minutes and then switch to Skype will annoy the Networks. But then you have to look at the logistics - until the end of the billing month, everyone you contact will need to be on Skype.
Everybody has a mobile on them, few have Skype access.
Sure they will lose out on the international call rates (or the cut they receive) but the increase in contracts with data tariffs will cover this.
And anyhow, one particular network banned the use of IM and similar (phone as data modem hookup) as part of it's standard data tariff. And any serial Skype user will soon hit the fair usage policies and game over...
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