"Gordon Henderson" <gordon+usenet@drogon.net> wrote in message
news:fs5fru$16no$1@energise.enta.net...[color=blue]
> In article <q2qFj.3546$6R1.1904@newsfe4-gui.ntli.net>,
> Harry Stottle <sorryspamdoesntwork@nospam.uk.co> wrote:[color=green]
>>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[/color]
As regards the smaller African countries there is a good reason for that.
The pipe cost is prohibitive and no one really wants to open the floodgates
and make it cheaper for various reasons.