Skype Asks FCC to Force Open Mobile Networks
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Skype Ltd. is looking to a 1968 ruling by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission to open up the country's mobile phone industry for "unlocked" devices and third-party applications-- such as Skype.
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Major mobile voice and data carriers in the United States have pledged to open their networks to outside handsets and applications, but regulators and customers need to be vigilant to make sure those promises are fulfilled, one member of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission said.
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Verizon asked court to strike down conditions requiring the winner of the new spectrum to let consumers connect using any device or software.
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NEW YORK  - Are cellphone companies using their sway over handset makers to unfairly limit consumers&#39; choices? Skype, a pioneer in PC-to-PC calling, thinks so, and it wants the Federal Communications Commission to do something about it.  In a blistering filing with the FCC, Skype basically accused Verizon Wireless and other big carriers of holding their customers hostage because most cellphones sold in the USA are &quot;locked,&quot; meaning you can only use applications and features sold by your carrier.
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The 3G mobile phone supports free calls and messaging between Skype users.
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(InfoWorld) - Don't expect new mobile phone services based on the Internet Protocol to become nearly as prevalent as those running over PCs. That's the view of Hamid Akhavan, CEO of T-Mobile International, one of Europe's largest mobile phone operators. VOIP (voice over Internet Protocol) services provided over mobile phone networks will have "far less impact" than those offered over fixed-line networks, Akhavan said Tuesday on the sidelines of a news conference at theÂ 3GSM conferenceÂ in Barcelona. "There are all sorts of technical issues that make mobile VOIP services difficult to implement," he said. Technical issues related to how networks pass on IP addresses of mobile users have not been completely resolved, he noted. "Take reachability, for example: How can the call come to me?" Akhavan also said emergency phone service and "always on" connectivity are also big issues, since staying online takes up bandwidth on pricey mobile networks. And then there's price: "When people talk about VOIP, they think free," Akhavan said. "With any mobile service provided over the Internet, you're going to need to buy a data package." Mobile VOIP "will take a small share" of revenue generated by mobile voice services, he said. Akhavan's views on the technical and commercial hurdles are shared even by some of the key advocates of mobile VOIP -- namely Skype. In a recent interview with a Finnish newspaper, Skype co-founder and CEO Niklas ZennstrÃ¶m spoke of "technical obstacles" and conceded that efforts to make Skype work had been taking "much longer than expected." Earlier, Eric Lagier, Skype director of business development for hardware and mobile, called the lack of attractive flat-rate fees for most mobile phone services a key commercial hurdle to mobile VOIP usage. He said the company didn't want to be in a position of claiming that its service is free, but facing users who at the end of the month are docked with a huge broadband usage fee. At last year's 3GSM World Congress, Skype and the Hutchison 3 Group (Hutchison 3G)Â announced a partnershipÂ to provide what they had hoped to become the world's first commercial VOIP service for mobile phones. Hutchison 3G, which operates IP-based mobile broadband networks in several European markets, was one of the first mobile phone operators to embrace VOIP, a technology many in the industry view as a major threat to their cash-cow voice business.
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Some U.S. lawmakers want wireless networks to be opened up to new devices and applications, and they questioned expensive early termination fees on wireless service contracts.
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Citing a need to nurture the emerging, "revolutionary" voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) industry, FCC chairman Michael Powell is calling for regulations that would grant the federal government greater control.
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The US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on Wednesday kicked off efforts that could reshape the communications services available to airline passengers.
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Tech companies pushing for access to spectrum &quot;white spaces&quot; and for net neutrality and open access on broadband and wireless networks have an antiproperty agenda, said one critic on Wednesday.Open access and other conditions on the 700MHz spectrum currently being auctioned by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC)&#160;may be suppressing bids and limiting the uses winning bidders have for the spectrum, added Scott Cleland, founder of telecom analyst firm The Precursor Group, speaking at the U.S. Congressional Internet Caucus Advisory Committee&#39;s 2008 State of the &#39;Net Conference in Washington, D.C. Cleland voiced a contrarian view during a discussion of spectrum policy; other speakers called on the U.S. Congress and the FCC to open up more spectrum to unlicensed uses.Open access in the ongoing 700MHz auction at the FCC, widening fair-use rights under copyright, net neutrality, and white-spaces access to television spectrum are all part of a broad and hidden agenda pushed by some tech companies and civil liberties groups, said Cleland, whose company operates the anti-net-neutrality advocacy group NetCompetition.org.&quot;Everybody throws the word &#39;open&#39; around and says open is wonderful,&quot; he said. &quot;But &#39;open&#39; means communal. It means not owned.&quot;Other speakers suggested mobile networks aren&#39;t open enough. Mobile voice providers Verizon Wireless and AT&amp;T have embraced a version of open access in recent months, but they still limit innovative mobile applications, said Jason Devitt, founder of secretive startup Skydeck and cofounder of mobile-phone-application provider Vindigo.Verizon Wireless in November announced it would open its network this year to outside devices, but that doesn&#39;t help mobile application developers, Devitt said. Most of Verizon&#39;s customers will still get their handsets from Verizon, and developers will have to get the company&#39;s permission to include their applications on Verizon-sold phones, he said.&quot;If you&#39;re a developer of mobile applications, Verizon&#39;s announcement makes no difference,&quot; he said.Cleland blasted the FCC for including open-access requirements in about a third of the 62MHz of spectrum in the 700MHz band currently being auctioned, saying some of the requirements may have driven away bidders. In the 22MHz block of spectrum called the C block, the winning bidder must allow users to bring such devices&#160;as mobile phones from other carriers and allow outside applications to run on the network.The FCC&#39;s 700MHz auction began last Thursday, and after 16 rounds of bidding through Wednesday, the high bid for the C block was nearly $4.3 billion, just short of the reserve price of $4.6 billion set by the FCC. High bids for the complete auction totalled $10.8 billion, and the FCC had expected to raise at least $10 billion. The auction will likely continue for several days, depending on bidding action.But Cleland criticized the FCC for imposing conditions on the C block and the D block of spectrum, a 10MHz block that the FCC wants to pair with another 10MHz set aside for public safety. The winning bidder of the D block would be required to build a nationwide mobile and broadband network with the two pieces of spectrum, with the network shared by public safety agencies and commercial users.As of late Wednesday, the D block had received a high bid of $472 million, far short of the $1.3 billion reserve price demanded by the FCC. The FCC may have to re-auction the D block without some of the requirements, Cleland said.When the FCC sets several conditions on spectrum, &quot;the bidders have the freedom not to play,&quot; Cleland said. &quot;An auction is a party. You don&#39;t get people to come to your party if you make it not fun and not a happy place.&quot;Other speakers disagreed with Cleland. The FCC needs to push forward with a proposal that would open up the unused &quot;white spaces&quot; in the spectrum bands used by U.S. television broadcasters, said Michael Calabrese, director of the Spectrum Policy Program at think tank the New America Foundation.Opening up this unused spectrum, which allows the long-range transmission of signals, would allow companies to offer wireless broadband services, particularly in rural areas, Calabrese said.TV broadcasters have opposed unlicensed spectrum use in the white spaces, saying the technology to avoid existing signals is unproven. The FCC is currently testing white-space devices.
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AMERICA&#39;s chief communications regulator will seek broad regulatory authority for the US federal government over internet-based telephone services to avoid stifling the emerging market.
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Broadcasters are trying to persuade the FCC not to allow wireless Internet services in the white spaces of TV spectrum, plan ad campaign.
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Google, Intel, Microsoft, Skype try to persuade European regulators that VoIP providers should not have to provide access to emergency services.
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A version of Skype made for mobile phones and networks is far from complete due to a lack of compatible handsets and technical issues, its CEO says. Originally, a mobile version for Nokia handsets was due to appear in 2005.
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Skype Technologies has launched Skype for Pocket PC Version 1.0, which allows users to make Skype voice calls for free using Wi-Fi wireless networking.
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Mobile phone users are to be able to use their handset to make free calls over the internet via Skype.
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EBay  division Skype and mobile  phone group 3 said on Monday they have launched a mobile  handset that allows users to access internet calls provider  Skype while on the move.