On the internet you can email for free, search for free, Twitter for free but not yet phone for free. Or at least, not in the numbers you may expect. True, last week Skype overtook AT&T as the biggest provider of cross-border calls, according to TeleGeography, but that was mainly people communicating from their computers accounting for 8% of all traffic. What about the other 92%? The situation is roughly like this. It is possible to route all phone calls, especially international ones, across the net at little or no extra cost beyond your broadband subscription. But once calls leave the net, they rejoin a local network that charges a termination fee – which is sometimes huge, even after last week’s welcome reforms by the EU.One answer is to get a mobile that connects to the web. In theory, you can then phone anyone in the world for no extra cost – as long as they too have a phone linked to the web on a compatible system. At a time of recession, this is a good deal for everyone. The catch is there is a massive lobby opposing it. Why? Almost all mobile operators stand to lose massive revenues from from their traditional customers if web telephony becomes the norm. Their wrath is currently focused on Nokia’s plan to embed a one-touch Skype button in its upcoming N97. Most operators are threatening not to stock it unless the Skype button is removed. One that isn’t is 3 which, unlike the others, is 3G only and doesn’t have a legacy of subscribers generating vast revenues. 3 already has a “Skype” mobile that cleverly combines use of Skype’s web network with 3’s own 3G network for starting and terminating calls. If a caller on 3’s Skype phone in London talks to someone in Hong Kong on the same system, all calls are free apart from the usual charges – £9 a month for Skype or £14 for unlimited data.To read this article from The Guardian in full, see:
www.guardian.co.uk/money/2009/apr/02/skype-web-telephony
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