So far, most carriers (except for Hutchison/Three) have loathed and feared VoIP applications like Skype or its mobile cousin Fring. In fact, some data plans prohibited users to use VoIP programs.
However, this is now set to change – Austria’s biggest carrier A1 just announced a cooperation with Fring:
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announced today the first ever deployment of fring’s mobile VoIP and mobile internet community application for a Tier 1 network operator.Under the agreement, mobilkom austria will give its customers access to a dedicated version of the fring mobile client, containing fring’s entire open-platform, feature-rich suite of internet based mobile communications & community services, allowing A1 over IP users to talk, chat and interact with each other & all of their online communities, and access fun mobile web applications, using the internet connection capability of their mobile device
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Avi Shechter, fring’s co-founder and CEO commented: “Today’s announcement by fring and its new partner, mobilkom austria, represents just the beginning of a sea change in the relationship between mobile VoIP and traditional mobile carriers.
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I am not exactly sure myself as to why A1 chose to take this rather radical step, as the carrier traditionally is known to be the exact opposite of offensive when it comes to adopting new technologies.
This combined with the Telefonica statements (coming soon) make me think that we are looking at a significant change in the carrier landscape. Traditionally, carriers have been afraid of innovation..this policy seems to change all over the board currently.
What do you think?
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