Wifi Revolution

The European Commission is waging a battle against mobile phone operators that want to restrict the use of Internet calling services through their mobile networks. In it latest move, the commission reportedly is throwing its weight against new roaming regulation or antitrust rules to block that attempt.

 

The new regulation, which took effect this month, said that there should be no obstacles to emerging applications or technologies that can be a substitute for, or alternative to, roaming services, such as WiFi, VoIP and Instant Messaging services, according to EurActive Network.

 

Skype (News - Alert) is one such service. It lets users make telephone calls over the Internet. Calls made to other users of the service are free. While there is a fee to make calls to landlines and mobile phones, the free service is catching on.

 

Viviane Reding, a telecom commissioner, issued a recent warning to T-Mobile that she wouldn't allow behavior that tries to block VoIP providers from expanding in the mobile phone market, IDG News Service said. What’s more, the commission has "a close interest" in T-Mobile's (News - Alert) intent “to block by way of contractual prohibitions the use of Skype Internet telephony services,” Reding wrote to Socialist European parliamentarian, also known as “MEP,” Christel Schaldemose, the report said.

 

“Discrimination of Voice-over-IP services by operators with significant market power must not be tolerated by national regulatory authorities,” Reding wrote.

 

According to IDG News Service, commissioner Neelie Kroes told MEPs in May that her department has been monitoring mobile network operators’ conduct regarding new Internet-based services, such as mobile VoIP, since early 2008.

 

“We find it odd that T-Mobile would seek to block or discriminate against users from accessing Skype on their iPhones or other handsets,” Kroes' spokesman, Jonathan Todd told IDG News Service. “If they want to develop successful mobile data networks they should be encouraging people as much as possible to use their mobile devices to access Internet applications and services.”

 

Stephen Collins, Skype's director of government and regulatory affairs, told IDG News Service that said mobile operators seem to be following a similar approach to that of AOL (News - Alert), which in the early 1990s restricted subscribers from having full Internet access. While the idea worked, subscribers later switched to ISPs that allowed full Internet access, he said. Collins added that he expects the same thing to happen with mobile Internet.

 

The European wrangling about follows a similar occurrence in the states. The U.S. Department of Justice is cracking down on those mobile phone operators that look to exclude the services, the report said.

 

Free Press,a nonprofit, “net neutrality” advocacy group recently asked the Federal Communications Commission to look into AT&T and Apple Inc.’s use of Skype.

As TMCnet recently reported, Free Press wants the FCC (News - Alert) (News - Alert) to find out whether the two companies are breaking federal rules by disallowing the use of the service on the Apple (News - Alert) iPhone. The new “Skype for iPhone” service uses WiFi connections – not a regular cell phone network or 3G high-speed network – to place calls.

 

Meanwhile, the justice department is reviewing whether mobile operators are abusing their market power. One such abuse, the department said, could be the restriction of certain services such as Skype's mobile VoIP.

 

Skype recently made headlines when the online videoconferencing service was used under a technological partnership between CompUSA and Forgotten Soldiers Outreach. Through it, a U.S. military man had the chance to watch the birth of his child while serving in Afghanistan.

 

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