On March 31, Skype announced software for BlackBerries andiPhones, a week after releasing a beta version for Windows Mobile.Earlier this year, Nokia — the world’s largest cell phone vendor in terms of volumes — announced that it would start shipping some handsets with Skype pre-loaded.
But caveats abound. For example, in the case of the iPhone, Skype voice calls can be made only over Wi-Fi, not cellular. That should help reduce the amount of voice revenue that wireless carriers would lose if iPhone customers could make Skype calls over cellular.
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Even so, some cellular carriers are blocking Skype. One example is T-Mobile, which has exclusive rights for the iPhone in Germany.
“There are two reasons for this — because the high level of traffic would hinder our network performance, and because if the Skype program didn’t work properly, customers would make us responsible for it,” a T-Mobile spokesperson says.
Other carriers — such as AT&T and the U.K.’s O2 — are allowing their iPhone customers to use Skype. Why don’t they view it as a threat? One reason is because very few carriers sell only a data plan for cell phones, so customers still have to spend at least $30 per month for voice service.
But carriers could take a revenue hit if some customers — particularly those who have a lot of friends and colleagues on Skype — downgrade their voice plans to the cheapest offering because they now can make the majority of their calls for free over Wi-Fi.
Those voice revenue losses wouldn’t necessarily be offset by more data spending if most people who would use mobile Skype already have an unlimited data plan for cellular, Wi-Fi or both. In those cases, mobile Skype probably isn’t going to prompt many data plan upgrades.
