The Big Players Line up in Mobile VoIP

TMC net is reporting that BT INMO are launching into the mobile VoIP space to go head to head with Skype:-

Quote:

BT Inmo, a wholly owned subsidiary of BT, has bought a licence to globally market and sell mobile VoIP, based on a solution from the US firm Qnective. It is developing a mobile VoIP solution set for BT Global Services, which it will base on Qnective's Qtalk products.

http://voip-phone-systems.tmcnet.com/to ... oducts.htm

Qnectives main value adds are voice quality and secure encrypted voice. From their website:-

Quote:

Specific VoIP clients of high quality standards for mobile phones and Windows PCs are very thin in today’s market – especially solutions for VoIP calls between mobile phones. Qtalk offers the highest unrivaled voice quality and can be used independently of the mobile network operator.

http://www.qnective.com/product-overview

BT obviously see them as the player to invest in.

The jury is still out for me until we see what Zer01 do. They're the one to watch at the moment in my opinion.

But there are now at least two key players for this space as BT INMO also has a GSM data channel, and that's where mobile VoIP needs to be.

Reply from satphoneguy on May 29, 2009 - 02:59 AM

i completely agree that on the 3G/4G data channel is where mobile VOIP needs to be; but i would really like to see it come not from the major telecom's like BT who are likely to use very 'traditional' pricing models but rather have the option of dozens, hundred, or even thousands of small operators that can 'sit on top' of any data plan.

i would actually like to really an offering that is nothing but SIP and lets me register any provider for inbound/outbound and even use LCR for the best rates based on destination or time of day. such an offering could also appeal to enterprise in that it could allow mobile intergrated into the same PBX's used for communicatin on the office phones including any call recording, transfers, etc.

Reply from martyndavies on May 29, 2009 - 08:10 AM

I welcome BT's entry, as it will take action from the "big boys" to break the logjam. Because of its size BT was pressured to get out of the mobile business at the start, as of course it dominated fixed telephony. Now that the deregulated telco business is more mature, BT have been dipping their toe in the water with fixed-mobile convergence, and they're ready to re-enter mobile.

They have no reason to 'play nice' with the Vodafones of the world, and in fact some of the shibboleths of the industry, like "thou shallt not send VoIP over the data channel" can only survive due to cozy consensus between cellcos. I've seen several examples recently of cellcos that charge you one rate for web access from your phone, and a different one (double) if you want to use your phone as a tether (modem) to access the web from your PC. Guys, a pipe is a pipe and you'd better get your heads around that. BT could be the cellco's worst nightmare.

Reply from andyk on May 29, 2009 - 08:10 PM

Quote:

Because of its size BT was pressured to get out of the mobile business at the start, as of course it dominated fixed telephony. Now that the deregulated telco business is more mature, BT have been dipping their toe in the water with fixed-mobile convergence, and they're ready to re-enter mobile. They have no reason to 'play nice' with the Vodafones of the world,

Actually, I thought it was understood that BT had to split off and sell its mobile division due to poor financial results that arguably followed over-ambitious investments in a tech-share boom

And actually, they are in a partnership with Vodafone for their mobile customers at the moment, having previously used T-mobile

Some BT rates are good and some very poor. Some global roaming SIMs are reputed to use BT as a carrier. On the other hand the retail rates on offer at Ribbit which they purchased a while back are simply appalling, typically $0.40 to 0.80 for Europeam mobiles, including UK mobiles 58.4c.

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