The antipathy of some mobile operators to their customers using VoIP services like Skype over their networks (see our earlier post) looks set to heat up further. UK operator 3 has announced that from May 1st 2009 it will offer Skype-to-Skype calls and instant messages for free over its data network. It is not clear from the announcement whether users will be able to make calls to and from the public telephone network (i.e. involving normal telephone numbers), for which they would presumably pay Skype, rather than 3, though other commentators have suggested that this will not be possible.
Perhaps more importantly, 3 plan to make the service available over the summer to anyone with a compatible and unlocked 3G phone - in other words to users of competing networks. Presumably the thinking is that once a user has a 3 SIM card in their phone, it will be easy to persuade them to take additional paid-for services. Despite 3's claim that "Skype is only available for free with 3 because we don’t think you should have to pay for mobile phone calls anymore." - an unusual sentiment for a mobile phone company - this would probably include paid-for calls, since this is likely to be the only way to reach people who don't have a Skype account, or are not online.
It will be interesting to see how people use this new service. One option would be to put the £1.99 SIM from 3 into a spare, or second-hand, phone for separate Skype use, to avoid having to swap SIM cards. This would be less promising as a basis for enticing Skype-only customers into taking other services. Of course another option for someone with a reasonably high-spec phone is to use a service like Fring, that runs as an application on the phone and enables Skype or other VoIP calls to be made over mobile or WiFi networks without changing the SIM card.
