T-Mobile Germany Tries The Jedi Mind Trick With Mobile Skype

from the no-it-isn't-yes-it-is-okay-it-is dept

Thu, May 14th 2009 7:52pm — Carlo Longino

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.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team

Filed Under: germany, mobile, skype
Companies: t-mobile

19 Comments

If you liked this post, you may also be interested in...

Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread

Anonymous Coward, 14 May 2009 @ 8:24pm

They don't want to get in trouble like Microsoft did, with only having Internet Explorer preloaded with the OS. DUH!
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 14 May 2009 @ 8:34pm

Hand wave ~~~
These are not the packets you are looking for
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 14 May 2009 @ 9:05pm

Re: Hand wave ~~~
Awesome line....
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Bettawrekonize, 14 May 2009 @ 9:43pm

"T-Mobile's justification for removing the app is great: it's not because they don't want people undermining voice revenues"

Lies, who do these people think they're fooling?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Morons in a hurry, 14 May 2009 @ 10:47pm

They're fooling their stockholders.
Here packet, packet...
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Techsupoort, 14 May 2009 @ 10:53pm

RE:
Skype is the doomsday machine for telco’s. It will literally relegate them to being dumb pipes faster than any other technology. Telco’s in europe already give you unlimited txts/mms and big x-net mins – the EU competition Commission has now set pricing on roaming. Skype would just finish them off. My thoughts on the wifi situation is that T-Mobile offers the wifi bundled in its call/data/txt packages, in London anyway, and they’re pretty prevalent (in big cities) so offering wifi would more or less be de-facto 3G for some users.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Lawrence D'Oliveiro, 14 May 2009 @ 10:57pm

Technologies From Different Centuries
Comparing telephones to the Internet shows up the stark difference between a technology product of the 19th century and one that came out of the 20th.

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.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Just Another Moron in a Hurry, 15 May 2009 @ 6:07am

Meh
Personally, I prefer to my hardware to come without pre-loaded crap. If I want Skype and something else, I'll download them both.

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.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Robert A. Rosenberg, 15 May 2009 @ 11:51am

Re: IE and Windows
The problem with the Preloaded IE was NOT that it was preloaded (so unless you knew enough to download your favorite browser you automatically used IE) but that Windows was designed so you NEEDED IE to run.

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).
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Brad, 16 May 2009 @ 12:55am

Re: Re: IE and Windows
If that's the case, how come MS CONTINUES to get in legal trouble over the bundling of applications that are completely ancillary? Are you going to convince me that Windows Media Player was somehow inexorably linked to the function of the core OS, and it wouldn't function without it, had a large international body not stepped in? Bullshit, it's just free money from a large company, so they'll take it.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
t0m5k1, 16 May 2009 @ 10:23am

UK advert
over in the UK we recently had a advert aired which was from T mobile BUT they were offering skype services via their network!!!
[ link to this | view in thread ]
porno izle, 25 Jun 2009 @ 8:43am

Re:
What this does do is give me the option of having no VoIP software at all, in addition to having one application, or multiple.porno izle,sikiş izle
[ link to this | view in thread ]
radyo dinle, 19 May 2010 @ 6:55am

thanks admin..
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Tv izle, 21 Aug 2010 @ 4:36am

Thanks you admin.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
lafmacun, 24 Aug 2010 @ 7:25am

heloo
thanks by admin
[ link to this | view in thread ]
canliradyodinle, 24 Aug 2010 @ 7:26am

hello
thanks by admin!
[ link to this | view in thread ]
canliradyodinle, 24 Aug 2010 @ 7:26am

hello
dankuwel by admin
[ link to this | view in thread ]
guzelsoz, 24 Aug 2010 @ 7:28am

super
tesekkurler ADMİN!
[ link to this | view in thread ]
antivirusler, 28 Aug 2010 @ 7:57am

thanks
nokta admin!
[ link to this | view in thread ]