The OMTP has published a white paper telling Networks to unlock VoIP services on handsets; business use of mobile VoIP is set to soar whilst Voda tell customers it’s expensive and unsafe.
The Open Mobile Terminal Platform (OMTP), which counts many of the networks as well as several manufacturers as its members, recently published a white paper covering pre-installed VoIP clients on handsets.
The paper suggests that operators are entitled to either remove or lock VoIP apps on handsets which they subsidise but must allow the subscriber to unlock the application after the initial contract period has been reached.
Networks will also be required to make it clear that the handset came with VoIP functionality which was subsequently locked or removed.
This paper coincides with a recent study from Coleman Parkes which finds that UK businesses using mobile VoIP is set to soar to over 70 per cent from a current 25 per cent within 2 years
Could it be that certain networks have yet to create revenue generating strategies for VoIP?
It has recently been reported that Vodafone is telling its customers that VoIP services are unsafe – insecure (as a pose to mobile voice calls?) – at the very same time that Sky News reports that our police and intelligence agencies are finding it a formidable challenge to crack VoIP communications as such calls can’t be intercepted.
Voda pointed out to one customer that these calls are expensive (erm, free?), perhaps they were alluding to their data charges…