Voice over IP  is voice’ over?

Voice over IP (VoIP) has come a long way in a very short space of time. Skype, the best-known VoIP service, is just a few years old, but it already has 70 million subscribers across the globe.
Its success, and the success of VoIP in general, is down to its basic premise: free calls between users, home and abroad, and cheap calls to regular phone networks. Until recently, Skype users have been largely constrained to using Windows PC, Pocket PC or Apple Mac to run the necessary software.
However, this is changing fast. Early next year, Skype will also run on Windows Mobile and Symbian smartphones. Mobile users will be able to make calls to other Skype users, mobile or not, for no more than the cost of their data connection.
The networks, unsurprisingly, are mindful of the trend. They have scrambled to launch their own home/office broadband services and look increasingly ready to enter the mobile VoIP market. T-Mobile and 3 have both tapped Skype to offer a mobile VoIP bundle already. 3 launched its X-Series mobile broadband concept on the UK market last week, and Skype forms a central part (see box out). T-Mobile, meanwhile, allows Skype usage on its Web ‘n ‘ Walk ܘmax ‘ tariff, which costs £44 per month.
But there are other options on the market already. Orange has taken the landline approach, and offers users a wireless broadband hub  known as a Livebox  that their Wi-Fi-enabled mobile phone can access and use to route calls across the Internet.
And then there ‘s Mobiboo, a curiously-named company that is offering a range of Wi-Fi cordless handsets and a Wi-Fi-enabled GSM phone, which can be used in the home or office within range of a wireless broadband router. Crucially, the Tovo-branded handsets can also make calls when the user is within range of a public access Wi-Fi station operated by The Cloud.
And, of course, if a Mobiboo user has a GSM/Wi-Fi handset, they can also make and receive calls across a GSM network. Mobiboo users get their own 079112 numbers, which can be used in parallel with their regular mobile number. With Mobiboo ‘s premium GSM/Wi-Fi handset, which costs £179, users can make and receive regular mobile calls as normal, but can also take advantage of low-cost (2p per minute) or free calls when within range of their home/office router or a public Wi-Fi base station.

Complex but cheap
It ‘s complex stuff, but mobile VoIP is also incredibly cheap and, as such, capable of driving a double-decker bus through the mobile industry as we know it today.
Mobiboo CEO Martin Heath is well aware of this and is looking to hitch a ride by getting the Mobiboo product ranged by all sizes of retailer  independent dealers, chains and all points in between. Mobiboo handset packs were available from 19 Tesco stores last month and Heath hopes it will roll out to dozens more when stock permits.
Heath is happy to pay healthy commissions to dealers that stock and sell his handsets.
Heath says: I want an army of dealers out there. Our product is a very attractive offering and I expect to see cellular dealers offering Mobiboo alongside their existing cellular deals.
He adds: In fact, we already operate as a dealer ourselves, as we can supply the Pirelli GSM/Wi-Fi mobile, which normally sells for £179, for just £40, provided users take out an O2 contract as well.
Heath doesn ‘t view Mobiboo as a dastardly rival to the mobile networks. He regards his mobile VoIP as a complementary service to conventional voice, with mobile subscribers using both cellular and Wi-Fi based Internet telephony in parallel.
T-Mobile and 3 are not so understanding. Both have blocked calls from their networks to Mobiboo 079112 numbers, claiming such calls cost ܘtoo much to route ‘ and blaming BT for high charges. Heath calls it outrageous and Mobiboo is appealing to Ofcom to intervene but, in the interim, it has set up a two-stage dialling service for 3 and T-Mobile users.
Its cool reception from the networks perhaps explains why Mobiboo has, initially at least, decided to market the service to the 700,000-odd home users of wireless broadband routers, as well as business users that have such routers installed in their office.
He also expects the Mobiboo offering to appeal to major companies, many of which have installed their own picocell base stations in their offices and campuses.
Heath suggests that Mobiboo and other services of its type will encourage users to get rid of their BT and cable landlines  in even larger numbers than seen at present.
Between 10 and 15 per cent of people have dispensed with their voice landline in favour of mobile already. We have to persuade the other 85 per cent to do the same, he says, adding that he expects to see users keeping the broadband element of their landline but to dispense with the line rental.

An expanding range
As it stands, Mobiboo only supplies Pirelli-branded Wi-Fi and GSM/Wi-Fi handsets with its service, but the range will expand to include Nokia E-series devices, among others, in the near future, says Heath. We ‘re also talking to one of the networks about a white label Mobiboo offering for them, he adds. That would really make life interesting.
Like Mobiboo, Orange is also promoting the use of a wireless broadband router in the home or office as a hub for routing mobile VoIP calls. But instead of allowing the use of any old router, subscribers to its Unique service must install an Orange Livebox  a white box that Orange insists is enough of a looker to have sit on a coffee table or
office desk.
Orange is ranging three compatible Wi-Fi handsets with the service  the Nokia 6136, Samsung P200 and Motorola A910  which carry calls over its GSM network when out and about and route them over the Internet using Wi-Fi when in range of the Livebox.
Unlike Mobiboo, however, the handsets cannot operate on the Orange GSM and the home Wi-Fi network at the same time. Users have to choose, though Orange routes calls via the Livebox automatically when in range. Orange isn ‘t encouraging the use of mobile VoIP away from the Livebox either, which perhaps adds up when the implications for its own voice revenues are considered.
But Orange multimedia and convergence marketing director Alistair Johnston is mildly dismissive of the revenue implications.
The revenue cannibalisation works in both directions. We may lose some revenue, but we ‘re also going to gain some from BT, he says. Pointing out that a £50 minimum monthly subscription to the service will generate good customer ARPU on its own.
The Unique service  which, effectively, bundles mobile with both broadband and mobile VoIP  was trialled internally earlier in the year and, says Johnston, has been available through around 100 stores since the start of November.

Dealer sales
We currently have around 400 retail stores, so the Unique product is available across 25 per cent of our real estate, he says. Next year, we ‘ll make the offer available through other sales channels too.
So will independent dealers be able to sell Unique?
No decision on that has been taken, says Johnston, although he adds that France Telecom is keen to service all of its customers ‘ telecommunications needs, not just their mobile requirements. We want to be seen as a supplier of mobile and fixed telephony, as well as broadband and other services, he says.
And judging by the messages that come through to Orange ‘s top distributors and dealers on Orange products, it is highly likely that dealers will be able to offer the service and get paid for doing so. Orange products and services get passed to the channel late, in general.
So why no public access Wi-Fi service?
It ‘s early days with Unique. We ‘re still getting to grips with how the product is seen by users. So far the response has been very positive, but I think there is a consumer education issue. We need to find out the best way to educate the user about Unique ‘s capabilities, and that ‘s quite a task when you think about it, says Johnston.
It ‘s not all wine and roses when it comes to mobile VoIP, as the technical issues involved with installing a Wi-Fi base station, either in an office or in a public access area such as an airport or railway station, are complex.
So says John Oliver, Wi-Fi business development manager with broadcast and cellular communications infrastructure specialist AlanDick, whose installations team claims to have installed thousands of Wi-Fi base stations worldwide. Oliver remains cautious about using Wi-Fi as a medium for mobile VoIP calls, mainly because the technology is still in its infancy.
You ‘ve got to remember that a lot of those early Wi-Fi base stations installed at airports, railway stations and other key points were put in about three years ago, he says. Back then, no-one ever thought they ‘d be used to handle voice calls from a mobile. The main usage was for a laptop user staying in one location and the access points were installed with this in mind.
Issues like this make it difficult to guarantee the same quality of service as with regular mobile, reckons Oliver. And then there is the question of users being sure which networks they are using.
He says: Most people use their mobiles with the handset clamped to their ear. They don ‘t look at the display that often, so what happens when they ‘re walking around and the mobile hands the call off from the Wi-Fi service and on to a regular mobile network? What happens then  does the customer get a large and unexpected bill 

Out of sight
Most Wi-Fi site operators are more concerned about access points being installed out of sight, rather than coverage issues, according to Oliver. For this reason, coverage may be not as good as it could be, which again means that users could be bounced onto regular mobile networks from Wi-Fi and end up paying higher charges.
Nevertheless, Oliver welcomes the arrival of Wi-Fi based mobile Internet telephony, especially as it will lay the foundation for the next generation of Wi-Fi, known as Wi-MAX.
Wi-MAX, for which kit is already available, allows a Wi-Fi network to be extended across whole city centre areas, or company campuses, using much higher power base stations.
It also allows calls to be handed between Wi-MAX base stations, allowing people to use the service when moving in a car, for example, and know that they will get a call that ‘s free from interference.
Once Wi-MAX gets rolled out in a couple of years, I think you ‘ll see some interesting alternatives to regular mobile voice, he says.
But that, as they say, is another story.

Fone Logistics offers mobile VoIP on Nokia E-series
North-East distributor Fone Logistics has partnered with Leeds telecoms specialist AQL to offer mobile VoIP on Nokia
E-series handsets.
Punters get information about the AQL mobile VoIP service with purchases of the three Nokia E-series handsets from Fone Logistics dealers. The deal is a sweet one for dealers and customers. It offers free connection and sign-up, free inter-AQL service calls, as well as outgoing calls to landlines at just 1.5p per minute. Impressively, there is also no monthly subscription unless the user wants an 0870 or a local number, for which there is a £2 monthly fee.
The service should be extended to the Nokia N80 when it becomes available to the channel next year.
We look forward to working with Fone Logistics in order to penetrate the business market through a mature and established channel, says AQL managing director Adam Beaumont.

3 and the mobile Skype phenomenon
3 ‘s X-Series mobile broadband service, which launched this month, offers Skype, Instant Messaging, web browsing and TV on the Nokia N73 and Sony Ericsson W950i.
A key feature of 3 ‘s mobile VoIP service, which uses Skype software and systems, is that the connection between the mobile and the network is circuit-switched and not packet-switched as with the desktop version of Skype. This means the mobile phone can monitor the 3 network for incoming calls, even when a Skype call is in progress.
So when will we see mobile Skype available on other networks? Last month at the Smartphone Show, Skype business development manager for mobile Eric Lagier says that a Symbian version of Skype would be available by the end of the year. However, Lagier now says that a mobile Skype package will only be released when Skype is happy with it. PC users are more technically-orientated than mobile users, who tend to look for an easy-to-use application, according to Lagier.
We want to make the Skype mobile experience as easy as possible, so we want to ensure it works efficiently on as wide a number of handsets as possible. When the software ‘s ready, we ‘ll release it, he says.
Lagier predicts that the mobile networks will eventually have to move to a flat-rate pricing model for their regular voice calls, as 3 has done, similar to the situation with broadband Internet.
In the 1990s, when users were accessing the Internet via dial-up, we were all used to paying by the minute or kilobyte, or whatever. Then broadband came along and we now pay for Internet access on a flat-rate basis. The same thing is going to happen with cellular, he says.
Against this backdrop, you ‘d expect the networks  with the exception of 3, which has broke ranks with its X-Series launch  to be running scared of Skype, but Lagier reckons this couldn ‘t be further from the truth.
All of the cellular networks we talk to are more than willing to work with us on mobile VoIP, he says. The networks are well aware of the potential that Skype has for them and their users.