Skype on T-Online blocking VoIP in Germany
by Volker Weber
What amazes me is that Skype is the number one download on the App Store in Germany, and yet the country’s dominant telecom operator Deutsche Telekom has already made it known that it would block the use of Skype on iPhone (and on Blackberry), both for its mobile network customers, and at its Wifi hotspots.
I find it quite telling that Deutsche Telekom would be so bold as to announce this arbitrary blocking of Skype. They pretend that their action has to do with technical concerns: this is baseless. Skype works perfectly well on iPhone, as hundreds of thousands of people globally can already readily attest. But their announcement also demonstrates that some operators do not fear the customer or regulatory consequences of their bad behaviour. It’s worth noting that even if German consumers wanted to change mobile providers, they could not: like Deutsche Telekom, every other German mobile operator contractually forbids consumers from using VoIP applications.
Comments
Sooo? Did it ever not work? Instant messaging and voip are only contractually forbidden, but nobody really cares. It's like with all the pirating going on nowadays ... nobody really cares, because it's not enforcable ...
Sebastain Herp, 2009-04-03
I have a really flat E-Plus flat-rate since autumn 2007. Skype and other VoIP clients over 3G / UMTS usually work, though performance and latency are not great.
Overall the service quality has much improved, but I am really waiting for E-Plus to finally launch HSDPA.
Moritz Schroeder, 2009-04-03
I have an E-Plus contract too. It works just fine, skype and all the other VOIPs.
The SIP-Phone integrated in my E90 works fine also via 3g. For my part I never had any problems.
BTW: In Leipzig I found a spot where E-Plus offers 3.5g.
Johannes Matzke, 2009-04-03
