Mobile musings

[Funkstar]

Last week I was up in Shetland with work. Unless you are on Vodafone mobile signal up there is pretty patchy. This got me thinking.

Why can you roam onto other networks in the UK like you can when you are abroad? I know this would cost a lot for calls etc. but there are times when you don't really care about that. Why can't I tell my phone to connect to anything that it can find and let me worry about the charges?

Another thought occured to me (dangerous stuff this 'thinking'). Do you think we will ever see the phone functions on a mobile moving over to a VOIP type application? Surely there is no technical reason why I couldn't use a wirless network (provided by the hotel I'm staying in) as the data connection for my calls and texts. My number would still be provided by t-mobile, so would my GSM/3G connection when I'm in range, but if I can't get a mobile signal but can get wireless I can just use that as the transport.

Couldn't this work out quite profitable for the operator? Last week I would have been making calls and tending texts (which I would have been paying for) without actually using the t-mobile infrastructure. t-mobile would only be doing as much work as the likes of Skype or any other VOIP provider does.

This is perhaps too radical a departure for the big telecoms firms to get their head around. It might be a bit like how the record labels can't deal with downloads. Or perhaps all we need is ubiquitus wifi or WiMax or the 700MHz spectrum to be released. Who knows.

[neonplanet40]

You can change your phone operator at anytime. I know i can over here in N.Ireland. Its in your settings but depends on your phone how you get in there.

As for VOIP, I WISH!

But companys are too money hungry to offer things like that.

[Funkstar]

Originally Posted by neonplanet40

You can change your phone operator at anytime. I know i can over here in N.Ireland. Its in your settings but depends on your phone how you get in there.

Not in the UK you can't. I've just tried it to make sure. The only other network I can find right now is Vodafone and i can't connect to it.

[Ferral]

Voip and Skype tends to be blocked by the networks. If you could do all calls etc over a wireless conection say on an N95 it would not generate revenue at all and hence being blocked.

Also a lot of the networks are sharing their masts now, T-Mobile share with 3 and I believe that Voda are sharing with Orange, this gives better coverage for the user and reduces the quantity of masts needed for coverage, which makes things a lot more environmentally friendly.

Finally, you can't just jump onto another service provider unfortunately if you are out of a coverage area. Would make things easier for the end user but you just can't do it.

[Funkstar]

Originally Posted by Ferral

Voip and Skype tends to be blocked by the networks. If you could do all calls etc over a wireless conection say on an N95 it would not generate revenue at all and hence being blocked.

What I mean by making the handsets VIOP is the regular phoen software is a data app that sits ontop of the OS that can take advantage of any data connection present on the handset. This app would bill your minutes and texts just like your phone does right now, in fact as far as the end user is concerned, the only difference between this and a regular mobile phone is they can still make and recieve calls when using a wirless network as opposed to the cellphone network.

Here is a scenario: I'm down visiting my parents in Angola. With t-mobile I can roam there and get charged a huge amount by the local operator, so I don't use my phone unless I really have to. But with the handset I've described, I could connect to my parents wireless network with my TyTn II and make and recieve calls like I would in the UK for the same cost as a regular call in the UK. That way I use have no problem making loads of calls and sending loads of texts. t-mobile only have to route the datastream to the appropriate provider or handset, I'm not using their infrastructure at all, yet they still make money off me for the call time.

Does that make sense?

[Templar87]

I can certainly see the advantage to what you're saying. Although, if you're already on a wireless network you might feel a bit jipped at having to pay twice - once for access to the network and once for the call - when free VoIP apps like Skype exist.

[Funkstar]

Skype is only free from PC to PC (or Skype phone to Skype phone) as soon as you dial a real number, they charge you.

[neonplanet40]

Over here i can switch from my contract provider (who is vodafone) to o2 ireland etc but thats cause we have different networks here available than you's would have.

[Ferral]

What you have to bear in mind is that the mobile networks work on sheer profit and revenue generated. Skype and Voip won't bring in as much revenue as say roaming charges if calls are made over data or wireless.

To think of the phones that now have wireless built into them, if you are in a wireless area that is free to access you will go onto that rather than going through your normal data provider service and onto the web that way. This inevitably loses the network money. A few people doing it isn't going to actually lose the network much at all. However, when you consider how popular the N95 is, sheer volume of owners all using the wireless rather than network data the amounts lost soon start adding up.

Yes I do work for Vodafone but not trying to be pro anything (Just thought I'd get that in). Its the way the networks generate revenue here. If they can make more money one way than another they will always go for the highest revenue generation. What you also have to consider is that the mobile market is all but saturated at the minute, so the networks have to concentrate on how to get people to buy their product. Long contracts mean upgrades are becoming more spaced out instead of yearly, new customers are either people moving from network to network or teenagers that are old enough to get contracts now. Not forgetting these new customers are getting signed into 18 monh contracts also, these longer contracts are a knock on effect of handsets becoming more expensive due to the technology that is now being built into them.

So what gets pushed more than anything else now?

The way forward is to get the existing customers to start using more products. So at the minute it is data and web surfing. You will notice looking about at current tarriffs that nearly all of them on all networks have data bundles included. They want you to use the data side of things so revenue can be generated that way with the slow down of handsets and new conracts.

[Templar87]

Originally Posted by Funkstar

Skype is only free from PC to PC (or Skype phone to Skype phone) as soon as you dial a real number, they charge you.

Ah, how could I forget that, lol. Bit of a brain-dead moment there

So yea, if the networks can find a way to ban all VoIP apps, other than the one they provide (which presumably is linked in some way to your normal phone account), then "why not?" really is the question.