Skype ‘Not Ready’ for Mobile Phone World
SDA-Asia writes…VoIP provider Skype says the mobile phone industry is not yet ready for the VoIP insurgency. Skype believes that the reason for this is the higher carrier charges stated by the mobile service providers. Skype’s services survive only with broadband connectivity and does not require telephony network for which telecommunication providers charge by the minute.
Skype’s hardware and software business development Chief Eric Lagier said, “We don’t want to be in a situation where we say: ‘Skype is free’ and then at the end of the month the user gets this huge broadband bill”.
He continued, “You can now make Skype calls at home, at work or on the move”.
The Skype software will not be able to work on another telecommunications network—as it was developed to run on a specific part of the 3 network, which requires cooperation from the carrier, Lagier said. “We use a voice channel as the bearer of the call.”
In November 2006, Hutchison, more commonly known as 3 in the UK, had entered into a partnership with Skype, Sling Media, Yahoo, Nokia, Google, eBay, Microsoft, Orb and Sony Ericsson to bring all of these services on to your mobile for a flat rate fee, it’s been called ‘X-Series’.
Customers of ‘X-Series from 3′ will be able to make and receive unlimited Skype calls with Skype PC users around the world; they will be able to engage in unlimited browsing of the Internet from their mobiles for free, and they will be able to send or receive instant text messages to/from another X-Series handset or PC free-of-charge, the company said.
‘X-Series from 3′ is already available in the UK from 1 December, 2006. In other 3G markets across the globe, it will be available sometime in early 2007.
