Skype is a really useful and convenient way of making national and international for free/cheap. Unless you happen to be a mobile phone operator, that is, in which case it is an evil force that threatens to steal the food from your table.
Imagine UK operators’ joy, then, when they discovered that Nokia plans to bundle a Skype client with every one of its new N97 handsets.
The Skype client for Symbian enables you to make free Skype-to-skype calls anywhere in the world or make calls out to non-Skype numbers by buying Skype ‘airtime’. This, naturally enough, is none too popular with the mobile operators like O2 and Orange who would much rather you buy your airtime from them, thank you very much.
O2 and Orange were both planning to offer the N97 as part of a contract bundle when it is launched but have reportedly told Nokia that they may refuse to carry the handset if the Skype client is not removed.
An unnamed source at one of the operators is being reported by Mobile Today saying, “This is another example of [Nokia] trying to build an ecosystem that is all about Nokia and reduces the operator to a dumb pipe. [...]if you spend upwards of £40m per year building your brand, you don’t want to be just a dumb pipe do you?”
Of course, there is nothing to stop you installing your own Skype client on your Symbian phone (N97 or otherwise) All you need is Wi-Fi or an uncapped data tariff and you could save quite a bit of cash…
TBC | £TBC | Nokia (via Mobile Today)
