German Courts Ban VoIP App on iPhone
T-Mobile in Europe seems to have something against VoIP, attempting to thwart companies like Truphone from connecting to T-Mobile UK customers, and now getting the courts to “ban” a particular iPhone app because it might induce people to “jailbreak” their phones, which is against the rules, you know!
sipgate’s Thilo Salmon told Tom Keating, “Unfortunately, T-Mobile has found a court to ban VoIP from the iPhone. I am glad to report though, that we have found a court to hold up the current ban of their iPhone ads in Germany. I guess, that at least eases the pain.”
Garrett Smith thinks the issue is a non-starter because “an overwhemling majority of the population will have an epic fail on their hands when attempting to jailbreak their iPhone in order to use the sipgate application.” Furthermore, he goes on, it will give the whole concept of Mobile VoIP a black eye.
Whether or not a normob is going to try and install this application is beside the point. The point is: a wireless carrier or government has no right to tell anyone what apps I can or can install on a piece of hardware that I paid for–either directly or through carrier subsidy. It’s a very slippery slope–one that could be applied to anything. Heck, anything is dangerous in the wrong hands, so why don’t we ban it?
Meanwhile, if you want VoIP on your iPhone in Germany? Get the Truphone app. No jailbreaking required!
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Tags: iphone, Mobile network operator, Mobile VoIP, nokia, sipgate, truphone Fnord
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Comment by spg
i think the big deal about sipgate is that you get a local German land line number for free; and without ever having to pay a single cent. that makes the expense to the people calling you MUCH MUCH cheaper. in europe the cost savings advantage on voip(particularly mobile VOIP) has to do with having a land line as opposed to a mobile number ring you phone.
truphone will not give germans a land line number in their local area code.
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Comment by JimAtJaxtr
Germany seems to be a hotspot for these issues lately. First there was the scuffle between O2 and Rebtel, and now this. Obviously, these are different issues, but I just find it interesting how they’ve localized.
Comment by spg
one reason germany is a hotspot for these issues is that it is the largest country in europe that has very strict regulations concerning rate plans for mobile phones. the result is that you have extremely cheap plans that give unlimited in network calls and calls to landlines. the other large european markets have mostly minute bucket plans with the same rate(or minute deduction) for all type domestic calls. in germany you can use VOIP call through and other toll-bypass options and pay almost no money at all to your operator. in the other large markets you are mostly limited to turning international calls into local.
Comment by PhoneBoy
It sounds vaguely reminiscent of when the large telcos here in the U.S. didn’t want to terminate calls certain “services” that had numbers served by telcos with large termination charges. They basically pay more than they can recover from the customer. No wonder AT&T and the like tried to do these services in.
I guess it’s the same for T-Mobile in Deutschland.