Vodafone sees no long-term case for blocking VOIP

A very brave and bold move by Vodafone. This will place a lot of pressure on their competitors to do the same.

It will be even more interesting now to see what Vodacom do, and if they are able to place pressure on MTN and Cell C. VOIP has already changed the way we communicate, and when more people have access to broadband, whether through 3G, ADSL or Wireless - they will always find a way to make cheaper calls if possible.

Thumbs up to Vodafone!
 
Good decision Vodafone, now what will the Vodacom board members decide?

[post=308129]
morebroadband said:
The problem with your argument is that markets and technology , specifically DATA and Internet technologies have a way of changing overnight. If Telkom remain the lumbering elephant they are they will only wake up once the technology has come and then gone.

Vodafone (largest Mobile operator in Europe & large shareholder in Telkom SA) have today announced that they do not see a business case in preventing VOIP from being used on their data network (3G). This is a seismic shift and I think will have major ramifications throughout the Mobile world. Users will now be able to use Skype or others freely without worrying about degradation of call quality, on their 3G networks. DATA will now become a commodity and people will be free to use their data as they please.

Vodafone will most likely release their own VOIP product to compete, but their statement today is HUGE!
Click to expand...
[/post]I agree mbb, it is huge - I am surprised by Vodafone's announcement, but in a good way :).

This is a sign that cellular network operators [of which Vodafone is the largest internationally], will start to look at fixed rated revenue as the way forward - IMO that's exactly what data allows for - a fixed monthly charge for x amount of data transferred in a calendar month.

IMO this is all about giving customers what they want - let customers make calls the way they want with the applications they want to use :).

The risk of restricting what a customer can do, is that a customer will give their business to a competitor - even if for no other reason than to meter out some revenge...
 
A very bold statement indeed. Competing against a free (or very low cost) service will be difficult.

Short of offering free calls themselves, I don't see how they are going to be competitive. They will still be making money though as (from my understanding at least) you will still be paying for the bandwidth you use via whatever protocol (GPRS, 3G, Edge etc) you are using to connect to the service.

Will our Cell Operators take a similar stance though? I have my doubts.
 
IMO it is not about making money off calls, it is about supplying the capacity to transfer data, and allowing the customers to decide what they will use that data for - whether it's VoIP, down/uploads, or whatever - let the customer decide in return for a fixed monthly charge.
 
IC,

I agree with you. The future will be about supplying data. With the advent of P2P VOIP and mainstream VOIP, the cots of calls will be neglible in the future.

Taking the USA as an example - all local calls are free (to landlines). In affect all Voip calls to lanlines will now be free to, as you just have to break out in the local town/city where the call will be terminated.

Understanding this it now becomes apparent that the future will be in selling pure data. This is where Vodacom and MTN can kick Telkom's arse, as they have the ability to leapfrog Telkom, as their coverage and equipment is suited to faster technology adoption.

I will not be surprised if we see Vodacom dropping their data rates soon, as they are enjoying some success with their 3G products, and once they reach critical mass the prices will fall. They will then be able to give Telkom ADSL a run for their money. We may need to see some improvment in their latency as this can be a problem when using Skype, whist on the fringe of their coverage!!
 
one thing i have always wondered about... nowadays i doubt very much voice is transmitted from analogue to analogue without being digitised at one point or another. Why not digitise from the offest and have a digital/voip operator ? I'm hoping the SNO does this, cause if so i'm pretty sure they can go as low as ever in terms of cost, besides i doubt very much that other than between customer premises and exchange its not digital. Heck who knows we could be paying analogue prices and be getting voip in the background.
 
We are, and Telkom have been using VOIP in the backgrund for a long time. Where they made the mistake was not investing in the correct equipment for that "last mile". They relied heavily on ISDN and other legacy equipment, when they should have switched to IP a long time ago. They have now woken up, but are still charging us 'analogue' prices!
 
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