Skype Change the Mobile VoIP Game. Again.

Skype have tied up with Verizon to offer free Skype calling from mobile phones in North US.

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Initially, Skype mobile will be available on ..... 3G smartphones with data plans, including the BlackBerry® Storm™ 9530, Storm2™ 9550, Curve™ 8330, Curve™ 8530, 8830 World Edition and Tour™ 9630 smartphones, as well as DROID by Motorola, DROID ERIS™ by HTC and Motorola DEVOUR™.

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John Stratton, executive vice president and chief marketing officer for Verizon Wireless, said, “Skype mobile on Verizon Wireless changes the game. For Verizon Wireless’ more than 90 million customers, Skype mobile adds great value because we’re effectively giving customers with smartphones and data plans the option to extend their unlimited calling community to hundreds of millions of Skype users around the globe. And you’re not limited to using a single type of phone; we’ll have nine smartphones ready right at launch in March.”

http://about.skype.com/press/2010/02/verizon.html

The deal is essentially structured in the same way it is with 3 in the UK, but getting on smartphones, and especially market-leader Blackberry, is huge.

What this means for people who need to be mobile and call between the US and the UK a lot, is your per minute call charges just hit zero.

I think this will cause 2 things to happen which make for a real step change in the GSM space:-

1. Roaming charges will get harder to justify to end customers. This is great for the consumer, but not good for the roaming arbitrage plays like call-back SIM's and multi-IMSI propositions.

2. GSM operators will now queue up to want to work with Skype. That puts Skype front and center as being a large piece of the puzzle that helps create a truly Global GSM network where roaming is irrelevant.

Another interesting thing is that, technically, VoIP only actually plays a small part here. GSM is in use between cell-tower and PSTN gateway. It only sits in the middle. It's the best place for it (you can control QoS over that last mile where it typically fails - the reason VoIP over WiFi never really worked and won't go mainstream).

But the consumer doesn't care. Looking around at the consumer blog posts about this, there's lots of talk about "mobile VoIP". It isn't mobile VoIP, but what this says to me, perhaps, is that consumers are starting to think about VoIP as not a technology but instead a buzzword representing next generation telephony. I don't think that's a bad thing. The method that calls are carried by is irrelevant to the user, as long as QoS is there.

The most powerful proposition in all of this is for the business that has offices in both the US and the UK. You can arm your workforce with these phones and they can all call each other for free. Add a Skype for SIP channel to your office PBX's and they can also call back to either office also for free.

I think we're finally starting to see the new business model for telephony form.

Reply from satphoneguy on Feb 19, 2010 - 01:40 PM

whether or not consumers care if this is really 'mobile VOIP' will end up boiling down to exactly how verizon markets this. will it be available using any rate plan including one with very few minutes or perhaps even per minute prepaid? or will you need to be on a high dollar 'eligible' rate plan. we will probably not know for sure until right before the release date.

i actually believe this would serve its purpose better if launched on simpler/cheaper 'feature' phones much like what 3 does instead of just high end 'smartphones.' blackberry and android owners are probably some of the least price sensitive customers out there and less likely to actually use skype all the time to save money. rather they will install it and talk about it. the people making lots of international calls from north america and desperate to start saving are likely using simple phones on prepaid.

if adopted by the other carriers as well this could eventually be a solution for free mobile to mobile calls between different carriers. but that is becoming irrelevant as north american cell phones are fast switching to unlimited voice minutes. interestingly on an unlimited voice plan the announced ban on calling US numbers does not make much sense. instead of stealing minutes from verizon skype would actually be paying the termination charges for verizon.

Reply from dean on Feb 19, 2010 - 04:03 PM

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whether or not consumers care if this is really 'mobile VOIP' will end up boiling down to exactly how verizon markets this.

I don't think they actually care at all. What was interesting to me is that the term is becoming less about technology and more of a mindset of "new age telephony".

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or will you need to be on a high dollar 'eligible' rate plan.

As you say, we won't know for sure until launch, but I would take a guess it will be for quite high dollar accounts, given the phones supported (high end devices).

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i actually believe this would serve its purpose better if launched on simpler/cheaper 'feature' phones much like what 3 does instead of just high end 'smartphones.'

I'd love to see that too. I would guess the reason for that is they're targetting higher APPU customers.

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if adopted by the other carriers as well this could eventually be a solution for free mobile to mobile calls between different carriers. but that is becoming irrelevant as north american cell phones are fast switching to unlimited voice minutes.

Unlimited international ?

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interestingly on an unlimited voice plan the announced ban on calling US numbers does not make much sense.

I think I missed this. Where is the ban referred to?

Reply from satphoneguy on Feb 19, 2010 - 05:36 PM

a few articles that i have read state that skypeout calls will only be allowed to numbers outside the united states; all US calls will be through the regular cellular minute plan. i have not seen anything specific about whether or not skypein will be possible. i believe that is blocked in all countries that 3 offers the skypephone. i would expect verizon to be likely to do the same since that would mean no airtime clock for inbound calls through skypein numbers.

Reply from dean on Feb 19, 2010 - 06:52 PM

OK, yes, that makes perfect sense.

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a few articles that i have read state that skypeout calls will only be allowed to numbers outside the united states; all US calls will be through the regular cellular minute plan.

Can't really blame them for that, especially with minutes bundles for local calls.

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i have not seen anything specific about whether or not skypein will be possible. i believe that is blocked in all countries that 3 offers the skypephone.

No, it's fully international with 3 from a Skype Client. If you mean Skype In PSTN numbers, yes - they're blocked as far as I'm aware.

Reply from satphoneguy on Feb 19, 2010 - 08:20 PM

yes. skypein PSTN numbers are what i was referring too.

Reply from andyk on Feb 24, 2010 - 07:53 PM

I'm not sure that I follow some of Dean's reasoning here.

Yes, firms with UK and US offices might use this to call each other. But it's hardly new to able to call across the Atlantic cheaply, and so far this helps just customers of the UK's smallest and the US biggest mobile company.

I can see less prospect for this to have much influence on roaming. Even if the implementation with Verizon is similar to like on 3 (which I wonder, as they mention data plans, whereas 3 and Skype don't need one as the calls are via GSM callthrough and the data used for presence and so on is free even without inclusive data), this isn't going to produce cheap roaming.

Skype and 3 don't work in a country with no 3 network, and anyone using data only for any VoIP calls while roaming is likely to spend as much or more than the roaming call tariffs they are trying to avoid. Unless they are in wi-fi coverage, which is presumably slightly outside this discussion.

Verizon is CDMA anyway, so hasn't got as good roaming prospects as a GSM network, so a great Blackberry data plan for roaming isn't going to be much help either.

When I said multi-ID global SIMs were about to launch Dean was highly sceptical, yet we can now see some of them, and now he is already predicting their demise. I'm not sure it will be so fast, though it's certainly true the market is tougher since the Eurotariff decreased and certain main networks introduced even cheaper arrangements, and yes some operations have closed.

How would you implement using Skype as an alternative to roaming? Do you mean that if there was a network in each country with free Skype, that people would get one of those SIMs as they arrive, then run all their incoming and outgoing calls via Skype?

Yes, it could be done. Are mobile companies queueing up to work with Skype, or likely to? Where is the money to be made if this symbiotic relationship stops the mobile company having an income from too many of their calls?

There are some 3 users who don't pay them any revenue, and can have a landline number for incoming calls without buying SkypeIn and make can very cheap outgoing calls without paying any money to either 3 or Skype.

Even a totally non phone nerd friend has realised that his new iPhone on Vodafone might help him talk to his kids in another country via Skype. But only when he is in his home country. I could have told him how to call their landlines for under a penny a minute, but that would have seemed too complicated to him. Yes, some people will think this is lovely, but the mobile company won't be top of the list, I suspect

Reply from satphoneguy on Feb 25, 2010 - 02:12 AM

what would really be the ideal roaming skype phone would be for skype themselves to form a multinational MVNO. the way i see it the only phone number assigned to the phone would be skypein PSTN numbers and that skype would charge some sort of airtime charge depending on costs in whatever country you happen to be in for inbound and that same airtime plus regular skypeout for outbound. ideally i would like to see such a service offered as a SIM card that works in any unlocked GSM phone. it should work even on the most basic phone except of course without the presence capabilities, etc. on a smarter data capable phone it would have a full blown skype client.

some companies like maxroam have come close to offering this but for skype to make there own branded offering could be the start of something big. specially for people w0o live in multiple countries or just travel extensively for work or otherwise.

Reply from andyk on Feb 25, 2010 - 12:39 PM

But Skype doesn't have any GSM licences, and has not shown propensity for acquiring any, even though one or two might have been available on terms a company their size can easily afford.

They aren't taking an mvno approach either, which might aim towards the position you suggest, but instead have gone for these symbiotic relationships that some people suggest is a bit unequal and gives them more than it does to the mobile partner.

Maxroam, I don't think has come quite as close as you think. At the risk of courting an argument with Dean again, I'll say it has been mostly just a white-label operation, first of an Israeli provider then via an arrangement with Belgian network and mvno. It isn't going to produce something cheaper than its suppliers are willing to allow. And actually it's only notably cheaper than using main network roaming in about half the world, and more expensive in a fair chunk of Europe.

There are several other global SIMs, one or two deceased, and they have been able to produce cheaper roaming, and some of their customers managed a bit cheaper still.

But there can't realistically be any prospect of getting down to near zero, a couple of cents per minute, unless Skype can persuade not only its existing or prospective partners but also the networks their customers roam on to waive all roaming and termination fees.

In other words, if you take a 3 UK Skypephone to France or Germany, so far Skype use doesn't work abroad, and while 3 might have waived the charge to reach the phone from Skype, any roaming call would still incur charges from Orange or Vodafone or T-mobile or whoever.

Reply from dean on Feb 25, 2010 - 04:28 PM

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what would really be the ideal roaming skype phone would be for skype themselves to form a multinational MVNO.

They seem to be moving more in the mould of partnerships rather than MVNO. To me this makes a lot more sense. MVNO's are extremely expensive.

Multi-national roaming is possible without multiple MVNO's or a multi-IMSI SIM system. All that's needed here is a deal between Verizon and 3 (which in effect would look and play like multi-IMSI as a Verizon customer would be "homed" to a 3 HLR for example). There may be some technical issues, but nothing that I'm sure couldn't be overcome if both sides were willing to settle the commercials.

Reply from andyk on Feb 25, 2010 - 10:15 PM

For a start, the Verizon customer doesn't have a phone which works here, so how would it register on a 3 HLR?

Reply from dean on Feb 25, 2010 - 10:18 PM

Reply from andyk on Feb 25, 2010 - 11:37 PM

Once they've given the punter an extra phone, how do they get cheap roaming in France and Germany and 20 or 30 other countries in Europe?

In fact all the other countries in Europe, as 3, the self-declared champions of cheaper roaming, abolished 3 Like Home and increased their roaming tariffs

Still, I suppose they've got more chance of tuning their HLRs than brands who don't actually have any ...

Reply from Nik on Mar 14, 2010 - 09:09 AM

I think mobile cellular carriers also try to change mobile low cost worldwide calling itself, for ex. Nomi Star in UK. Mobivox also support calling to Skype buddy's from any phone for free from rest of the world.The main problem is: purchase expensive locked top handsets from exiting provider needed.Ideal solution if this works from any mobile device even cheap or old fashioned.

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