Comments on: T-Mobile Germany Blocks iPhone Skype Over 3G and WiFi

By: Robert

Robert — Tue, 21 Dec 2010 00:59:38 +0000

Germany charges per connection rates on land lines, you pay monthly fees, LD fees, the length of the call, and I think they have peak and off peak rates.
T-mobile is probably trying to keep themselves out of the crosshairs. I would imagine the lost revenue would be recovered via new fees for t-mobile.

By: edrina

edrina — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 11:02:51 +0000

n 1 more thing…he using d t.mobile line in germany….plsssss plssss plsssssss help me

By: edrina

edrina — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 11:01:03 +0000

hello…
i’m frm malaysian n hving some problem wit d iphone tht my BF give me…dis iphone he buy frm germany whn he work there…now my iphone divice data is gone bcoz of there been some mistaken when i try to load a itune song to my iphone…d software been upgrated to 3.1…here in malaysian we not use dis software,we only using d 3.0…i can’t open my phone or using it at all…pls help me to settle my problem…ur kindness is my plsure.

By: alan

alan — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 14:54:41 +0000

Hi there – I’ve just moved to Germany and want to get an iphone to talk with my friends back in the UK. I can seem to get a straight answer.

Basically can Skype/Truphone or another run on the 3GS on T-mobile in Germany?

What is the deal with the pay per month VoIP with T-mobile does this then mean you can use Skype or Truephone legally?!

By: Andrew

Andrew — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 18:55:27 +0000

I’m in Germany. Use Skype a few times a week without issue on both 3G and Wifi. They don’t monitor how you are using data so I’m not sure how they could do this other than removing the app from iTunes. My app even updated so I think this news is over blown. Most of the iPhone plans here have flatrate calling any ways. It’s not the threat people who aren’t from here make it out to be.

By: Mickey Segal

Mickey Segal — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 21:25:37 +0000

Someone in Toronto tells me that Canadians are blocked from using Skype on the iPhone. I don’t know if this is just a roll-out delay or if Rogers is taking the same approach as T-Mobile.

By: Allan Jones

Allan Jones — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 15:41:15 +0000

Like Gailu, I’m no partisan for the operators. It’s true that what the operators charge for SMS text messages, as a cost per bit, is staggeringly high. But the operators are charging what the market will pay. There isn’t an inherently ‘right’ price for text or voice – or so the market philosophy says. (I’m not a great believer myself in the market philosophy, but that’s the arena they operators are working in.)

In Europe, and the UK in particular, the operators have had to pay a huge amount for spectrum. Building an LTE network, which many of us would like to see, will require huge investment, which has to come from somewhere. I’m not convinced that the operators are currently rolling in cash. I have read that T-mobile and Three are losing, but I’m not sure how authoritative that was.

I think in the UK one has to question whether having five competing 3G operators brings the benefits that competition is supposed to bring. I don’t think they can all afford to build a high-speed network covering the whole country. It would seem crazy to have five networks covering the rural areas, all trying the chase the same few customers. I know collaborations have been announced, to some degree as a result of pressure from Ofcom.

Similarly I don’t think all five operators can afford to roll out an LTE network. More likely they will all want cherry pick the lucrative areas such as commercial centres of big cities. That’s my guess.

By: Gailu

Gailu — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 14:30:42 +0000

Hi,

I am not related to operators in anyway and a simple user working in embedded system company but I do emapthise with them.

Its not only few servers that operator needs to install. billions dollar spectrum auction, billions of dollars goes to network Equipment vendors (NSN, Alcalucent etc.) then maintaenenace, backhaul bandwidth etc. So why should they give free ride to VOIP companies. I wonder why VOIP companies can’t share revenue with operators, why they want free ride.

Its like you need a connectivevity between 2 cities to run your truck so you build the road, we won’t contribute as its your need. However once road is built please allow to run my car on this road as my transport mechanism is different than yours and more efficient. There is no free ride in the world. If you couldn’t involve during road was built then you can pay toll tax for your ride.

By: Andrew

Andrew — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 12:01:50 +0000

And the point is also that telecos are far less sophisticated than they would like us to believe. Many of them are running very old kit that can’t handle the newer types of handsets and applications well. T-Mobile is being conservative because a widespread use of VOIP may spoil the perceived quality for its paying customers.

By: cr0ft

cr0ft — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 11:44:30 +0000

Telco greed is a universal constant… these are the same people who charged through the nose to transmit a simple few-hundred-byte text message that cost them absolutely nothing to move except what pittance they had to spend on a few servers to handle that.

It’s simple enough to see what they are doing – they are protecting their income stream off voice traffic. Hardly surprising, if they are allowed to get away with it.

This is in fact partly why people who want network neutrality to be law get so worked up about the whole topic – if any carrier can start blocking or slowing down competitors data for purely competitive reasons the only result of that is serious damage to usability for the end users and increased costs all round.