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Will Skype mobile maim the wireless industry?
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Courtesy Skype
Skype is best known for its voice telephony service, so it was only a matter of time before it went wireless. But it’s not the first mobile voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) offering, and it won’t fly with many wireless carriers.
On March 31, Skype announced software for BlackBerries and iPhones, a week after releasing a beta version for Windows Mobile. Earlier this year, Nokia -- the world’s largest cell phone vendor in terms of volumes -- announced that it would start shipping some handsets with Skype pre-loaded.
But caveats abound. For example, in the case of the iPhone, Skype voice calls can be made only over Wi-Fi, not cellular. That should help reduce the amount of voice revenue that wireless carriers would lose if iPhone customers could make Skype calls over cellular.
Even so, some cellular carriers are blocking Skype. One example is T-Mobile, which has exclusive rights for the iPhone in Germany.
“There are two reasons for this -- because the high level of traffic would hinder our network performance, and because if the Skype program didn’t work properly, customers would make us responsible for it,” a T-Mobile spokesperson says.
Other carriers -- such as AT&T and the U.K.’s O2 -- are allowing their iPhone customers to use Skype. Why don’t they view it as a threat? One reason is because very few carriers sell only a data plan for cell phones, so customers still have to spend at least $30 per month for voice service.
But carriers could take a revenue hit if some customers -- particularly those who have a lot of friends and colleagues on Skype -- downgrade their voice plans to the cheapest offering because they now can make the majority of their calls for free over Wi-Fi.
Those voice revenue losses wouldn’t necessarily be offset by more data spending if most people who would use mobile Skype already have an unlimited data plan for cellular, Wi-Fi or both. In those cases, mobile Skype probably isn't going to prompt many data plan upgrades.
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