T-Mobile Germany Tries The Jedi Mind Trick With Mobile Skype
from the no-it-isn't-yes-it-is-okay-it-is dept
The Skype app for the iPhone proved to be an instant hit, topping App Store download charts around the world, including Germany, where T-Mobile reminded its customers that using Skype, or any other VoIP app, could get them kicked off its network. The operator now says it's "looking at different ways of dealing with VoIP", perhaps including offering some special plan where users would have to pay some fee to use VoIP. It also says it's not actively blocking any voice apps, although when it begins selling the Nokia N97 smartphone later this year, the Skype application that's normally pre-installed on the device will be stripped out. T-Mobile's justification for removing the app is great: it's not because they don't want people undermining voice revenues by using Skype, but because "by not putting Skype on, subscribers could choose from a number of VoIP apps, and not be limited to just one." That's as opposed to having Skype pre-installed, and customers being able to download and install any other VoIP app alongside it. Only in the world of mobile operators does removing choices for customers actually increase customer choice.Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
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Hand wave ~~~
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Re: Hand wave ~~~
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Lies, who do these people think they're fooling?
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Here packet, packet...
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Technologies From Different Centuries
Funny that, even with mobile phones, the system is still fundamentally built on 19th-century principles. The network controls what you can do with it. New applications need the permission of the network operator. And here we see they can disable features where they see a threat to their existing revenue model.
Whereas with the Internet, the network is basically a dumb pipe that pumps bits from here to there and nothing more. All the application logic is in the endpoints; you don’t need permission from the network operator to come up with a new application idea, you just build your servers, perhaps offer software for download by users, and away you go.
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Meh
What this does do is give me the option of having no VoIP software at all, in addition to having one application, or multiple.
So, yay T-mobile.
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Re: IE and Windows
Yes, you could then use IE to download your choice of Browser and then declare it as THE BROWSER TO USE for browsing (demoting IE to only be used to support Windows but not browsing) but that leaves open the question of how to download the other browser in the first place (unless M$ placed installer copies of FF/etc. on the install disk and you used that installer to install your selected browser which would then auto-update to the current version).
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Re: Re: IE and Windows
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UK advert
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heloo
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hello
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hello
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super
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thanks
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