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T-Mobile Told To Route TruPhone |
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Written by Adam Gosling
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Wednesday, 18 July 2007 |
A judge hearing a case between mobnile VoIP provider TruPhone and
wireless network operator T-Mobile has issued an interim injunction
instructing the carrier thatit must connect TruPhone calls.
The decision is a major win for TruPhone which has been battling
incumbent telcos in the United Kingdom. This latest hurdle came about
when T-Mobile refused to interconnect calls to or from the start-up
VoIP provider.
The crux of T-Mobile's argument
before the court was that it was not unwilling to connect TruPhone, but
was unable to reach a contractual agreement on the price for the
interconnect.
However TruPhone argued the refusal was a pretty clear breach of competition law under which the mobile carrier is required
to 'make calls or otherwise transmit electronic communications to every
normal telephone number'.
By the time the mater came before a Judge, TruPhone had agreed to pay
the (loss-making) rates demanded by T-Mobile until the British telco
regulator OfCom could settle the price dispute.
The other four UK major mobile network operators - 3, O2, Orange and
Vodafone - all agreed to interconnect with Truphone. The start-up VoIP
service which is still in Beta testing phase offers a range of mobile
services such as SMS-over-IP, ‘presence' capabilities and VoIP over 3G
connections.
In the pre-trial hearing, the Judge ruled that T-Mobile must interconnect with
Truphone by Monday 23rd July.
James Tagg, Truphone's chief executive officer, said: "The
injunction is good news not only for Truphone but for every company
trying to develop internet-era services and for every consumer wanting
freedom of choice and lower prices. We are determined to bring
better-value mobile calls, text messages and other innovative services
to mobile phone users, and it's right that we should not be prevented
from doing so."
T-Mobile is not the only netowrk operator that's been causing problems
for the VoIP start-up. Vodafone and Orange caused something of an
uproar when their Nokia N95 handsets turned out to have had their VoIP
capabilities disabled and TruPhone claims new data
tariffs published by Vodafone mean customers using VoIP will be
charged more than for web browsing or email.
"T-Mobile's
move is the most aggresive act," claims Tagg, "but it isn't alone in trying to find
ways to slow down mobile VoIP. Vodafone and Orange tested one way by
removing internet telephony from their branded Nokia N95 handsets
without telling their customers, and Vodafone is planning to charge
more for VoIP traffic than for web traffic on its new mobile web
service."
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