In article <q2qFj.3546$6R1.1904@newsfe4-gui.ntli.net>,
Harry Stottle <sorryspamdoesntwork@nospam.uk.co> wrote:[color=blue]
>I was considering taking out a mobile broadband service and was looking
>through the options. T-mobile are advertising their Web'n'Walk service
>at £15.00/month for 3 GB, but when I dug through a couple of layers of
>small print, I found the following
><Quote> We do not permit use of this service for internet phone
>calls</Quote>
>Link [url]http://www.t-mobile.co.uk/services/uk/fairuse/[/url]
>This seems like a restrictive practice to me, a mobile phone company
>providing a different type of service, but banning users of that service
>from using it in a way that could result in competition to their main
>service. How do others see this, and does anyone know if this could be
>challenged legally, because if T-Mobile are allowed to get away with
>banning internet phone calls through their broadband service, then I can
>see VoIP being increasingly threatened.[/color]

It will always be "threatened" as long as it's a competing technology
and something that may lessen the operators revenue. It goes as far as
being illegal in some locations - eg. as far as I'm aware in South Africa
where the govt. is the majority shareholder in the telephone company,
and I've had issues in smaller (african) countries with the ISP blocking
VoIP ports.

Three allows Skype calls, but not Skype-out calls as far as I'm aware -
obviously Skype-out is a revenue loser for them. There were early
reports of Vodaphone (and maybe orange?) "crippling" phones with VoIP
capabiltiy too - removing the VoIP parts. However my E90 does SIP very
well over Wi-Fi, and mybe over 3G too, but I've yet to try it.

I do have to say though, that I'd rather use a mobile phone for GSM/3G
calls rather than VoIP calls - it's probably cheaper (contract depending)
and more reliable at present, but who knows in the future...

Gordon