Is Deutsche Telekom playing an April's Fool joke at the expense of Skype users in Germany?

Robert Miller is Skype’s General Counsel.

As you may have heard, this week Skype announced that its highly anticipated application, Skype™ for iPhone, is now available on the Apple App Store. The app also adds Skype calling and instant messaging to any second generation iPod touch with a compatible headset and microphone.

We are very excited to have launched Skype on iPhone, which so many users had been asking for. We have worked with Apple to ensure that users can have a true Skype experience on their iPhones, with beautiful interface and great voice quality. Also, in the summer, a Skype-ready handset will also be launched by Nokia as part of its N-series range. This is part of Skype’s efforts to enable all Skype users to use the software wherever, whenever they want to.

An interesting fact: at the time of writing, 24 hours after launch, more than 600,000 downloads of the software had taken place on the App Store, and Skype ranks as the number one iPhone download in more than 40 countries around the world, from the US to Brazil, France and China.

What amazes me is that Skype is the number one download on the App Store in Germany, and yet the country’s dominant telecom operator Deutsche Telekom has already made it known that it would block the use of Skype on iPhone (and on Blackberry), both for its mobile network customers, and at its Wifi hotspots. (as reported in the German online press and today in the American media)

I find it quite telling that Deutsche Telekom would be so bold as to announce this arbitrary blocking of Skype. They pretend that their action has to do with technical concerns: this is baseless. Skype works perfectly well on iPhone, as hundreds of thousands of people globally can already readily attest. But their announcement also demonstrates that some operators do not fear the customer or regulatory consequences of their bad behaviour. It’s worth noting that even if German consumers wanted to change mobile providers, they could not: like Deutsche Telekom, every other German mobile operator contractually forbids consumers from using VoIP applications. (this is the same in France, actually).

This is a real shame: many other operators around the world know very well that people want to use innovative Internet applications, like Skype, and that’s the reason they pay their ISP to access the Internet in the first place.

On top of that, there is no technical justification for this arbitrary blocking of Skype, and it represents a barrier to online business put in place by a private company just because they can, because they control access to the Internet.

Yet, no one can do anything about it: German or EU regulation does not forbid such blatantly unfair practices, and the new EU legislation for telecoms which the European Parliament and European governments are supposed to adopt later this month will not help either, it seems from the latest texts being considered in Brussels: it may even make things worse, by legitimizing restrictions put in place by operators to users’ Internet access, as long as they inform consumers.

We are trying to change things, together with other Internet companies like Google, Yahoo, DailyMotion, or Price Minister, and with the strong support of consumer associations. (More from Skype and at the site of the European Consumers’ Organisation – PDF)

But European politicians need to hear our call now before they vote on the new legislation on 21 April, or there is a strong risk that very soon consumers will be stopped from enjoying such cool products as Skype for iPhone, or Facebook, or Flickr or Twitter in many places, not just Germany.

The Internet was conceived as an open network and this has been the root of the dynamism it has enabled. Skype passionately believes that consumers should be entitled to access an open Internet on a variety of devices and on fixed and mobile connections to the Internet. Our efforts, in particular with North American and European policymakers recently, seek to empower consumers to choose the mobile phone features and Web applications that they want; remove any operator-imposed barriers that restrict choice; and encourage mobile networks to open up to software innovators. Networks are converging and Skype-enabled devices can be used across different kinds of wireless networks. That’s why Skype supports and champions a consistent approach to open devices and applications across all broadband networks. Firmly establishing this consumer right will maximize consumer choice and encourage innovation, and it will benefit everyone in the industry.

Skype’s Government Relations team has been advocating this consumer right around the world pretty much since Skype started. We’ve always been passionate about giving consumers what they want, letting them choose, and not be constrained by existing powers and old ways of doing things.

We hope that governments and legislators will heed this call coming from Skype, the wider Internet industry, and consumers, to ensure open access to the Internet, everywhere, on any device, on any network.

Comments

Dear Robert,
I'm glad to write a comment about skype development ... but what do you think about Romanian country? I mean I saw all your skype offers but Romanian always is out! Can I know the reason, and what can we do to put romamian country in skype ofers listing? If you want some help maybe we can collaborate about skype in romanian. Thanks a lot.

Hi all,

we've done an interview with a T-Mobile Germany spokesperson about Skype on iPhone and the Nokias - and about the reasons why T-Mobile plans to block the application.

For everybody who's familiar with German: http://www.cnet.de/digital-lifestyle/specials/41002441/skype_telefonate+auf+dem+iphone+nicht+bei+t_mobile.htm
Google translation to english: http://translate.google.com/translate?prev=hp&hl=de&js=n&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.cnet.de%2Fdigital-lifestyle%2Fspecials%2F41002441%2Fskype_telefonate%2Bauf%2Bdem%2Biphone%2Bnicht%2Bbei%2Bt_mobile.htm&sl=de&tl=en

For Canada the good news is a reported statement from Rogers: "Rogers, which is the exclusive Canadian carrier for the iPhone, said it would not seek to block its customers from using the service." But Skype needs to work with a good Canadian IP lawyer to resolve a patent-licensing issue.

"That’s why Skype supports and champions a consistent approach to open devices and applications across all broadband networks."

Sure, just like your closed proprietary protocol?

Dear Mr. Miller, why are platforms like Skype not trying to seek a consensus with telephone companies? Isn't Internet replacing all former ways of information transmission such as Telephone calls, TV, Radio and whatelse? Would'nt it be a good idea to find a common base with them to get them turn away from the middleaged "pay per minute" system to a "pay per data volume" scheme? Then Skype would be a parnter platform for them, rather than being a threat.

I do not point my fingers at T-Mobile for this. It is not THEM who created a monopoly for iPhones in Germany, it clearly is Apple. If you want an iPhone in Germany, your only choice (if you dont consider the grey market) is to go to T-Mobile and to accept their pricing plans, which may look different if you had a choice. And you need to agree to be locked into the contract for 24 months. Still, there were people queing for that kind of deal.
So, from T-Mobile's perspective, it is only logical to assume that iPhone customers are willing to swallow whatever. And so far ... they were right.

Who needs customer satisfaction if customers dont have a choice, anyway ? Thank you, Apple.

Dear Mr. Miller,

I share your fight for Net Neutrality, and actually I am involved in a wide european coalition which opposes the most detrimental practices of net discrimination allowed by certain amendments to the Universal Service, to the Framework and to the Authorisation Directives of the Telecoms Package, which will be voted the 5th of May in the Europen Parliament. I have seen, on the European Union Observer, with pleasure that Mr. Sahel is fully aware of the dangers related to the package. http://euobserver.com/19/27859

Coalition is composed of dozens NGOs in 16 EU Member States and includes lawyers, technical experts, analysts, journalists and activists.

It is our understanding that first applications to be blocked or at least heavily deprioritized will be protocols for p2p (e.g. BitTorrent) and Skype, in order to promote custom's telcos/providers VoIP solutions.

I warmly invite you to visit one the campaign sites (http://www.blackouteurope.eu) and to look at our open letter/position paper (that was before the IMCO vote of 31st of March, which turned out to be a catastrophe for Net Neutrality) here http://www.co-ment.net/text/980

We are ready to launch a new massive campaign inside and outside the European Parliament through press releases and direct contacts and inviting citizens to contact their MEPs, but be aware that our position is extremely difficult now that pressures from AT&T and Verizon have become strongest than ever and without external help we might fail to save Net Neutrality.

Also, anyone should feel free to contact me as one of the persons responsible for communications in the coalition platform, even just for more info if you wish.

Please find third-party deep legislative analysis, independent of coalition's analysts, here: http://www.iptegrity.com

Best regards,
Paolo Brini
(Opennet coalition coordinator for Italy and Associazione Scambio Etico spokesperson)

portavoce@scambioetico.eu

I find it very interesting that you pillory T-Mobile and "European politicians" but do not spend one word on Apple and ATT practices, or your own, for what matters.
Why is Skype available only on WiFi? Why is it OK for Apple to prevent Skype to work over 3G network? Why does Skype go along with that prohibition? Why do you not force a show down with Apple by making Skype over 3G available? Will ATT allow me to use Skype/iPhone on their WiFi hotspot? There is no word on that. Did someone try? If not how is ATT diffrenet from T-Mobile?

Of course you'll say: "Apple SDK agreement prevents us to do that" or "ATT contract with Apple prohibits that".
How is that different from T-Mobile contract prohibiting VoIP?
This is the pot calling the kettle black.

BTW: I have nothing to do with T-Mobile, I live in the US, I am a Skype customer (otherwise I would not be allowed to post this, why?). I'm an ATT customer and I have bought more Macs, iPods, iPhone that I could possibly count.

I'm also quite wary of hypocrisy.

Thanks

Overhere in The Netherlands,T-Mobile told the press that using a voip application over 3G is allowed,so they act totally different then T-Mobile germany.
Now if only Skype and Apple would allow us the same....because right now,the app is blocking voip over 3G,not the provider,or at least not overhere !

We now know what T-mobile would do if you have Skype installed:

For the past 12 hours I have not been able to connect to the internet on my iPhone and doing a little search online, it appears I am not alone. I would simply wonder (if nothing else) why were T-mobile customers NOT INFORMED about the ban and have to endure excited download of the application (not forbidden in any form from the App Store), excited use of the chat functionality, excited use of the phone calls over WiFi, to find that one day, T-mobile has cut them off without an obvious reason and only through the help of twitter and google would one find in the end that this could be the explanation - maddeningly unreasonable.

"Thank you" T-Mobile for being "forward thinking"!

Dear Skype, Thank you for your efforts - it is a pity that German customers will have to endure this.

UPDATE: I spoke too soon - internet has been restored. T-mobile does NOT block (yet?) the internet access of users who have Skype. Apologies.

Is Deutsche Telekom playing an April's Fool joke at the expense of Skype users in Germany?

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