Published: 28 Mar 12 09:47 CET | Print version
Online: http://www.thelocal.se/39938/20120328/
Swedish telecom operators want to implement technologies that will block mobile phone users in Sweden from making free calls using services like Skype and Viber.
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It's up to responsible politicians and other respective authority bodies to stand their ground against these, let's face it, ridiculous capitalistic claims.
The example given by Antonito in the first comment is the perfect analogy. Data is data.
We are coming into an age where we don't always need ownership to prosper. The idea of ownership is only relevant when there is scarcity. Something like internet has the potential to be 'freely abundant for everyone.
Profits will kill us in the end if we don't put a stop to the insanity soon. A new era of abundance from the evolution of technology must NOT be allowed to be suppressed.
This will not allow them to block Skype and it will not allow them to charge you based on data usage or call usage. That would be the best scenario for everyone. As a result they might raise subscription prices if they feel they don't make enough money, though that is where the market and competition will jump in.
It seems a bit silly that they would not accept that these voice over IP services are harmful to their revenue since they actively push data bundles to promote the use of the internet over their network. They get their money still regardless if standard calls are made or not.
It should be down to the consumer how they wish to use the service they subscribe to.
how about that :)
As they say ''Access is King''
they need to focus on being a dumb, fat pipe as soon ALL information is going to be fed through it. a stupid protectionist stance by the providers and the government is going to hurt everybody, first the consumer, but eventually the providers as well. it will hamper innovation, and stagnate the market.
i have hope that not all providers will be so short sighted and gain a huge competitive edge by being the best dumb, fat pipe possible. i know thats the company i'll be using and most people would too.
@jdbpogo
You're exactly right. As long as people arent accessing illegal content then it has nothing to do with them whatsoever.
As if any sane minded people would let this happen.
how i use it is my business not the provider.
this is just another of providers looking to screw over their customers and i hope there will be massive protests over this.
In this high-tech world innovation cannot be stifled indefinitely.
You can't put the genii back into the bottle.
We have different types of security in the socialist system that other countries don't have but our government does anything it likes to make more money from us.
I hope there will be protests of some kind about this, but knowing Swedes I bet there won't. It will just be ja-ha in the end.
Enter VoIP. No mobile networks of its own. No licenses. No costly frequencies. They usually have just data center with VoIP servers connected via gateways to one or several fixed telephony providers, who in their turn have interconnection deals with CNOs. Look at the calling rates. They are dirt cheap, being a reflection of the low overheads of running a VoIP business. To be fair, VoIP operators would need to buy traffic from CNOs at wholesale prices and then resell it to customers. Much in the same way as mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs) do.
The argument about the bandwidth (BW) being paid for is wrong. The price of the BW is given on the assumption that voice traffic will be kept intact and data BW would be used for non-voice services. Given that voice goes to VoIP, CNOs will shift the pricing so that regula voice services will be cheap (as data BW now) and data BW will become more expensive (to compensate for lost revenue from voice). Prohibition of VoIP is a wrong step, in my opinion. It is a legitimate service that is in high demand, and it should be just priced right (let the market work here). If you have read so far, you will see that blocking VoIP is wrong, but cheap data BW may soon disappear as CNOs recover their revenues. I think thet governments will support CNOs in this move (remember the heavy license fees).
I don't think it is important for the general public to know this license cost. The main thing that most people considers is getting the service that they want in the cheapest possible price.
When the quality of service is as bad as for swedish cell data network, it is very natural wanting to get it at the cheapest possible price.
Personally i agree to pay more for a really good quality cell network data services. But these "really good services" are simply not available for purchase.
The telecome are fored to charge so much because of the licenses they must pay to the government for the riht to use a frequency.
The government invents the prices and sells to the telecome nothing but air space.
So it is basically a TAX by the government on you via the Telecoms.
Its totally crazy way of licensing spectrum.
what is the alternative / solution ?
1. Get a wifi router that has multiple SSID's, and share one of them as a guest with 10% of the bandwidth allocated to it. This will allow us the people to just use open wifi everywhere and punish the mobile telecoms.
2. To bypass the Telecoms blockage of VOIP, you just need to get a Router that has a VPN built into it.
then from you mobile you transparently connect to your home router which then connects to the other person your calling.
The Telecoms companies cant block this because it is encrypted over a different IP port.
People that know about this stuff have been using there solution for years now.
We cant change the system, but we can work around their stupid ways of thinking.