Posted on 03/06/2007 1:29:43 PM PST by nickcarraway
Operators deploy equipment to detect VoIP traffic over their networks.
Mobile phone operators around the world are investing in equipment to counter what they see as a growing threat to their voice revenues from Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP).
The moves add impetus to a petition that leading VoIP player Skype lodged with the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) last month demanding that mobile phone network operators allow their customers access to VoIP services via their mobile phones.
The gear in question is Deep Packet Investigation (DPI) equipment, which analyses and identifies data packets as they flow across a carrier’s network.
Initial investigations using DPI have startled carriers. One major European operator recently found that Skype usage over its network was far higher than its worst fears, according to DPI equipment supplier Allot Communications of Israel.
“Revenue loss was staggering,” according to Antoine Guy, Allot’s marketing director.
Some carriers are blocking access to web sites from which Skype software can be downloaded as a result of what they have learned from DPI technologies. In the end, however, “there is no way of blocking Skype,” said David Knox, product director at VoluBill, a French equipment maker.
But that does not mean that carriers are not trying to do just that. South African carrier MTN, and Vodafone’s German subsidiary have both informed customers that Skype usage could lead to cancellation of their services.
In February Skype petitioned the F.C.C. to “confirm a consumer’s right to use internet communications software and attach devices to wireless networks.” Skype’s petition claims that carriers are “using their considerable influence over handset design” to maintain control and limit subscribers’ right to run “software applications of their choosing.”
A spokesman for Vodafone Deutschland told Red Herring the company was merely making customers aware of a legal reservation under German law. In reality, any VoIP application could run over its mobile network, the spokesman added.
Christopher Libertelli, Skype’s North American director for government and regulatory affairs told Red Herring that mobile operators should remove blocking clauses from their agreements to show they do not have any objections to customers using Skype and other VoIP services. He also suggested that handset makers wanted operators to open up their networks.
Peter Dykes, analyst at U.K.-based Informa Telecoms and Media, said operators needed to protect their voice revenues because it will be a long time before they make money from data services.
“Bandwidth is the one thing (carriers) are short of and if a third party comes along and hogs all the bandwidth they have a right to get upset,” he said.
Ken Blakeslee, chairman U.K.-based consultancy Webmobility, believes some sort of compromise is inevitable. The first steps towards this compromise may have already taken place. Skype has been widely available on mobile handsets in Japan since 2005. Meanwhile, 3 UK, the Hutchison-owned U.K. mobile carrier, in December actually promoted Skype as a feature of its new.
can't they just use port 80?
"There are two earlier posts identical to yours", said the posting police.
Although I use Skype to call my wife's cell phone from Europe and Asia I wasn't aware that cell phones could use Skype to call out. Interesting.
It was not intentional and I got them erased.
Only since telephones started having the capability to access the internet, a growing trend.
Talk about unintended consequences!
Countries like Costa Rica, where the government has a stranglehold on telephone service and rates, a call to or from the US is 5 times the cost to call singapore or India...
Oh, they can't charge excessive amounts for "postalized" services?
"Although I use Skype to call my wife's cell phone from Europe and Asia I wasn't aware that cell phones could use Skype to call out. Interesting."
My office has a VOIP system. Used my laptop to call home from a Starbucks in Israel -- no charge. It was great.
Not a problem.
Yes! Our entire phone system VoIP. We have a dedicated T-1 (?) at the main office, and each Polycom phone is really just a computer, conected on a private system.
I can plug in the PolyCom phone anywhere (such as my house) and the phone rings from the receptionist or my secretary, just like I was in my office.
Similarly, I have a little program that I can boot on my laptop that will turn it into a mirror of my phone. Any call to that number is picked up by my computer (and vice versa).
With a long, non-dedicated, connection (like a Starbucks in the outskirts of Jerusalem) there is a bit of a delay.
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