Wifi Revolution

UK-based Mobile VoIP provider Truphone (News - Alert) might be getting ready to bring a lawsuit against Orange and Vodafone after the two mobile operators allegedly disabled the VoIP capability on their branded Nokia N95 handsets – perhaps in a move to protect their voice revenue.

Truphone’s mobile VoIP service lets Nokia cell phone users make free or low cost phone calls via the data portion of their provider’s 3G network, as well as via WiFi. This new type of service is viewed as a threat by the large mobile operators, which make the bulk of their revenue from traditional cell calls. By and large, Truphone’s service lets users avoid the fees normally charged by the carriers for long-distance or inter-regional calls.

Truphone discovered that Orange and Vodafone had removed the standard Nokia VoIP capabilities from their branded N95 handsets several weeks ago. Although these phones still allow for branded software enabling VoIP services and other applications to be installed, Orange and Vodafone have reportedly gone out of their way to remove the standard VoIP client that comes with the phones "out-of-the-box" (basically, the Internet Telephony menu option has been removed).

In a statement released April 23, Truphone implied that the move by Orange and Vodafone is tantamount to blocking its service and also suggested that it was a “threat to mobile net neutrality” – the concept that all network operators, wireless or otherwise, should be prohibited from blocking or degrading web-based services, including VoIP, or denying access to websites on their networks.

“The removal by two of the UK’s mobile network operators of VoIP functionality from Nokia’s flagship handset, the Nokia N95, constitutes a major threat to mobile net neutrality that should concern all mobile phone users,” the company said in the statement. “Net neutrality (News - Alert) has been critical to innovation on the web to date. In particular, the way people shop, learn, communicate and work would be very different if Internet access wasn’t neutral.”

“Net neutrality means that - for example - broadband providers do not lock customers into specific products, services or content controlled by that provider,” the statement reads. “It’s because of net neutrality that businesses such as Ebay, MySpace, or Amazon have thrived when, if their exposure had been confined to small uncompetitive ‘walled gardens,’ available only to a proportion of Internet users, they may never have achieved their global popularity and current success.”

“Preventing consumer choice is protectionism in disguise – it’s subsidy abuse,” said James Tagg, CEO of Truphone, in the statement. “We’re at the dawn of the mobile internet era and consumers should get an open playing field and not a walled garden. If the mobile network operators start blocking services they don't like there will be no incentive for anyone to innovate. You may own the handset, but they'll own you.”

However, it has been pointed out that mobile operators in fact do own the networks which they operate - and to a certain degree they do have the right to limit how their networks are used. A simple example of this is the handsets themselves – mobile operators have the right to sell handsets which are pre-loaded with software which connects them only to their networks – not their competitors’ networks. Although consumers can buy phones which are not pre-loaded with the operator’s software, they can’t connect to the network until they have the software, and it is typically not feasible to preload a phone with multiple software clients from multiple operators. In this sense, consumers are already limited in terms of which networks they can connect to.

Still, Tagg said to disable the standard VoIP functionality on these phones is tantamount to “a removal of customer choice,” and that could be the basis for a lawsuit (or it could at least raise the ire of some lawmakers). He said the company has not yet filed a suit – but it is mulling over its options.

“We believe Vodafone’s stance is not lawful, and we are considering our position,” Tagg was quoted as saying in a published report. He said Vodafone is not only disabling Internet telephony on Nokia handsets, but it is also failing to meet interconnection obligations and blocking competing websites (specifically, he said Skype’s (News - Alert) website is being blocked).

Tagg also asserts that Vodafone is refusing to connect calls to Truphone’s range of mobile numbers, which is a violation of UK telecommunications laws. Truphone holds a registry of numbers which it can assign to its customers, thus enabling it to function as a mobile operator unto itself. These numbers appear in a phone’s call log and can receive SMS messages, however, according to Truphone, the numbers are being blocked, regardless of whether the caller is placing the calls via the Vodafone/Orange networks or over WiFi (News - Alert).

In response to the allegations, Vodafone said in a statement, “Customers can download VoIP applications if they choose to do so or can use VoIP services via a laptop and data card.”

Indeed, other VoIP services – including those offered by fring and WiFiMobile - continue to work on the Nokia N95 on Vodafone and Orange’s networks – so it can be argued that the two carriers aren’t really blocking VoIP, per se, they’re just removing the ability for the phones to support Truphone’s service, which relies on the standard VoIP software supplied by Nokia in order to operate.

“Vodafone believes that VoIP-over-mobile is not yet a mature service proposition as it does not have guaranteed quality of service, and would fall short of the customer experience demanded of any service we launch,” the statement from Vodafone says. “To ensure a solid end-to-end customer experience, this service would require in-depth testing, billing integration and customer service support which is currently not available.”

In other words, the data portion of the network simply does not have the capacity to handle an influx of VoIP calls – or at least there would be poor sound quality resulting from a lack of network resources (for which the carrier would more than likely be blamed). Furthermore, the company pointed out that it has not yet had the opportunity to test the standard VoIP software which comes with the Nokia N95 phones for quality and reliability on its network. 

“There is also a misleading perception that VoIP services are ‘free,’” the statement reads. “This is not the case when it comes to using VoIP over mobile, where customers will need to use data connectivity to establish a service. By doing this, there is a risk that customers could incur unnecessary charges when competitive mobile tariffs are likely to be a more cost-effective choice.”

This is an interesting dispute and how it plays out could end up setting a major precedent for how mobile VoIP providers deliver their services in the future.

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Patrick Barnard is Assignment Editor for TMCnet and a columnist covering the telecom industry. To see more of his articles, please visit Patrick Barnard’s columnist page.

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