28 February 2009

Nokia Riles UK Operators With Its Plans
To Closely Integrate Skype Onto Nseries Devices

As you may have already know, at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona last week, Skype and Nokia announced a partnership that will bring the world's leading Internet communications experience to the Nokia range of Nokia S60 devices starting with the Nokias flagship device, the upcoming N97 QWERTY slider.

Unfortunately it seems that UK operators Orange and O2 did not view this cooperation and Skype integrated into Nokia devices too kindly since it could threatens their existing revenue streams, especially because it allows users to make free long-distance calls, according to mobiletoday.co.uk.

"Making Skype available everywhere through mobile devices is essential to fulfilling our vision of 'enabling the world's conversations'," said Scott Durchslag, Skype's Chief Operating Officer.

O2 and Orange responded furiously to Skype's declaration that Nokia N97 owners will be able to use 3G and WLAN to easily make and receive free Skype-to-Skype voice calls, in addition to low-cost Skype calls to landlines and mobile devices.

If the row is not resolved the two operators may refuse to stock the N97 – or any future Nseries handsets containing Skype – unless Nokia strips out the Skype client. The two operators are understood to have vented their anger in high-level discussions, which involved group level executives from Nokia.

One operator source told Mobile: ‘This is another example of them trying to build an ecosystem that is all about Nokia and reduces the operator to a dumb pipe. Some people like 3 may be in a position where it could make sense to accept that. But if you spend upwards of £40m per year building your brand, you don’t want to be just a dumb pipe do you?