Up the revolution – Truphone wins court injunction against T-Mobile blocking tactics
Rating: may the VoIP be with you…. And also with T-Mobile…
by Bena Roberts
A judge has instructed T-Mobile to stop blocking calls to Truphone. Truphone is a mobile company that enables VoIP calls on mobile phones – Nokia Series 60 ones.
From the press release:
Core information
1. T-Mobile was instructed by the judge to stop blocking and begin routing calls to Truphone numbers by Monday 23rd July.
2. Today’s ruling is the first time that interim relief has been awarded against a mobile network operator under the Competition Act.
3. Full details of both sides’ skeleton legal arguments are available [see links below]. The judgment is expected to be available electronically tomorrow [Tuesday July 17th].
Quotes
James Tagg, Truphone’s chief executive officer, said:
• “The injunction is good news not only for Truphone but for every company trying to develop internet-era services and for every consumer wanting freedom of choice and lower prices. We are determined to bring better-value mobile calls, text messages and other innovative services to mobile phone users, and it’s right that we should not be prevented from doing so.”
• “To be granted interim relief means we successfully demonstrated that we have an arguable case to make at a full trial.”
• “We didn’t want to go to court but we had no choice: T-Mobile was effectively preventing the launch of the Truphone service so we had to take urgent action.”
What we think?
VoIP and mobile and mobile operators’ services are going to and will remain at loggerheads – but this is a necessary step. You can’t just top access to a certain number as it’s anti-competitive.
On a personal level a few weeks ago I was flying to London with my kids on my own. My mobile phone was lost and my spare one’s battery was about to die. So I turned on my laptop – put in the microphone; the only VoIP provider was T-Mobile so I connected with my username and password. The flight was delayed, I was out of nappies and baby food and the next plane was 4 hours ahead. I was stuck; so I thought I would Skype Out. I paid T-Mobile’s access EUR 5 for 30 minutes then I initiated a Skype call. Guess what. Not only could I not make the Skype call the system locked out and shut me out and all my credit was eaten leaving me without 30 minutes on line and without making a VoIP call.
I was fuming. …..this was online but all VoIP should be allowed…well done judge…
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