German mobile operator offers Skype VoIP over 3G

Stuart Corner
Monday, 05 September 2005 05:58

Business IT - Technology

Ovum reports that Skype has formed a partnership with German mobile operator, E-Plus under which Skype software will be bundled with E-Plus's €40 data subscription package, enabling E-Plus' customers to make Skype VoIP calls over e-Plus' 3G network. The move comes only weeks after Vodafone Germany announced that it intended to block VoIP traffic from its 3G network, from mid 2007.<br><br>Ovum comments: "There are no mobile phones with Skype software, so presumably the Skype service can only be used via 3G-connected computers. In that case, this is not a mass-market service...If VoIP over 3G is not available to those people, it's not going to stop them making VoIP calls; they'll just use WiFi instead. ....We have reservations about the quality of VoIP service that current 3G networks can support. Most of them have only a 64kbit/s uplink, with no class-of-service differentiation, so voice quality will rapidly degrade on a moderately loaded network."