Wireless voice charges to tumble from today’s giddy heights?
Riding atop sky-high voice charges, mobile operators are naturally resistant to the prospect of users making near-free calls over the wireless Internet. With the prospect of a dramatic fall looking inevitable, it’s a question of ‘if you can’t beat them, join (or buy into) them’. There are risks attached.
Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) has become well established in the fixed-line market with companies like Skype and Vonage claiming to have millions of customers using their technology. Now major players in the mobile arena want to bring the benefits of VoIP to wireless users.
The problem is that the main benefit of VoIP in the fixed-line environment, essentially free national and international calls, does not play well in the mobile space. Enterprise customers are obviously keen on the idea of mobile VoIP as it could significantly reduce their rapidly growing communications costs.
For mobile operators, however, the concept is less enthralling. Mobile VoIP would have a direct impact on the massive revenues mobile operators generate from voice traffic — still their major source of income. In addition, the mobile VoIP proposition is attracting many new players into the mobile market and the last thing operators want is more competition.
