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Why is T-Mobile Scared of Truphone?

gigaom.com — Perhaps because it's scared of becoming nothing more than a commoditized channel for distributing value-add applications created by other, more innovative, players. Blocking Truphone seems like a typical old-school telco response...

Who dugg this? Made popular Jun 17, 2007

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  • deviant87, on 10/11/2007, -0/+25Truphone works over the net using your phones data plan via 3G or over any wifi network when in range. They aren't making money off T-mobile in any way. If T-mobile is willing to sell you an unlimited data plan, surely you should be able to use it without any undue restrictions?
  • fatdog789, on 10/11/2007, -0/+10US Tmobile != UK Tmobile.
  • hootpie, on 10/11/2007, -2/+10They get bonus points for using "inter-web" in their commercial.
  • OHFOSHO, on 10/11/2007, -0/+6Because they are going to release their own similar service:

    http://www.theonlyphoneyouneed.com/
  • Saml01, on 10/11/2007, -0/+5I gave it a shot just to see if they are blocking it all over the world.
  • popothebright, on 10/11/2007, -0/+5Message to T-Mobile: You cannot stop the wave of VOIP service companies that is on the horizon.

    What you should be worried about is not that you will be undersold. You should be worried about companies like Truphone, one day
    blocking T-Mobile.

  • hazard, on 10/11/2007, -0/+5Mobile VOIP is inevitable, if anyone wants to block them, it's their loss.
  • vans12, on 10/11/2007, -0/+4It is because you can beat the system. It is awesome I do it all the time, it saves me a ton of money. Basically the way I have it setup is I use http://www.voicestick.com and tmobiles fav 5 plan. I tell tmobile that I want voicestick as one of my favorite numbers and then I set up the i2bridge with voicestick so that every time I call from my cell phone it just gives me a dial tone. This way all of my calls are free to voicestick. I never have to worry about going over my minutes or anything like that. It is great!
  • carl201167, on 10/11/2007, -0/+4@zadadka

    Nope - the free countries are listed here http://www.truphone.com/help/bundle_free.tru and there are 40 of them
  • popothebright, on 10/11/2007, -0/+4Because they are vastly overpricing their services.
  • deviant87, on 10/11/2007, -2/+5@mc7winkie

    I am currently using 3s X-Series plan on my E65 while that may seem irrelevant they do offer unlimited internet (fair use limit of 1 gb a month) which can be used for any purposes without problems.

    They also offer 5000 minutes of Skype calling your mobile using a mobile Skype client from iSkoot.

    If a mobile company as established as Hutchinson Essar who operate all over the world can sell that for just £5 a month does it still seem unreasonable that T-mobile doesn't need to resort to blocking competitors.

    I really don't like sounding like a freakin advert but if you have a few mins do check out the X-Series offered by 3 UK it really is something else.
  • dattaway, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2Give Tmobile a few months of patent portfolio shopping. They'll rally up the lawyers to crush the competition if the AT&T deathstar doesn't beat them to it.
  • Saml01, on 10/11/2007, -1/+3I just called that number from my US Based Tmobile account and it got through. Left them a nice message supporting their cause.
  • deviant87, on 10/11/2007, -1/+3@popothebright

    http://xseries.three.com/

    £5 - Silver X Series
  • popothebright, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2@deviant

    Link please?
  • cryptoki, on 02/01/2008, -0/+1well.. what comes to mind are services like Skype Mobile software made for portable hand-helds etc.
  • ronin691, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1It's gonna get A LOT worse if Net Neutrality doesn't get put into law:

    http://www.savetheinternet.com/

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWt0XUocViE

    Save the Inter-Webs!
  • Hewbie, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1mobile companies enjoy their monopoly over this market, which why i planing on getting one them open source *hardware* phones giving me the freedom,
    their even group which build their own phones using module designs :D since most phone out their are lockeddown DRM b.s.
    and some of them phone are pure crap U.I/ Feats. too :/

  • jamesbody, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1@artemisfox

    Truphone IS offered in US (with US numbers)!
  • cryptoki, on 02/01/2008, -0/+1Think of it this way...

    Your in Canada or Mexico with your T-mobile phone and you need to make a long distance call back into the US. If I remember correctly i was paying like 1 dollar a minute-ish to call back into the us. The TruPhone has a VoIP module built in, so all you'd have to do is find an open hot spot or bring your mini-wifi plug in access point to plug into you laptop or wall outlet and you could make calls essentially for free (or more likely a few cents a minute).

    For instance the D-Link DWLG-730AP 802.11G POCKET ROUTER is one of many.
  • inactive, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1"Destination (Landlines only unless otherwise stated)"

    Truphone is brilliant. I use it on my E65 over 802.11g - Free calling anywhere theres open wifi. It's absolutely brilliant. Not sure about using it over 3g - it does use a lot of data and the charges would possible exceed just paying for the call in the first place unless you had a truly unlimited 3g data plan
  • FuzzyCat, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1
    3 X-series appears to be another company that advertises itself as an unlimited service and then adds limits by having a fair use policy. Sorry, but either it's unlimited or it's not... and in this case, it's not. Similar to vodafone who to exactly the same.



  • tech42er, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1@mc7
    You're absolutely right that T-Mobile is within their legal rights to block any number they see fit on their network. That does not make it right. They could legally block access to all numbers in a certain area (with a certain area code). If they did that, we'd be screaming about it on Digg, just like we are now. It isn't illegal, but we don't like it and, as you said, we'll get the word out and if given a choice, use competitors over T-Mobile. It's a free market.
  • STARTSOMETHING, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1anyone know if its only free to landlines?
  • cryptoki, on 02/01/2008, -0/+1Ya.. its pretty sad that you have to hack your own phones these days just to access a 3rd party WAP.

    Most VoIP companies support true innovation, while many mobile cellular service divisions do not.
  • protektor, on 10/11/2007, -1/+2The US carriers are like animals - they'll do whatever they can to protect their revenue streams. I wrote a small program to create ringtones for WIndows Mobile based phones (smartphones, etc). Worked fine here in Australia but in the USA, the phone's are so locked down that the tunes have to be copied to the phone manually. If you pay enough $$ to the carrier, they will sign your application and allow you more access to the phone. And you pay those $$ everytime you make a change. Very frustrating.

    I just wonder what other applications - I mean real innovative ones unlike mine - never make it out to market because of issues like this.
  • Dumbledorito, on 10/11/2007, -1/+1@mc7winkle: It's not that simple for some. I have no problem with T-Mobile as it fits my needs and there's a tower not 7 blocks from my house, giving me awesome reception even in my basement.

    As far as consumerism and capitalism's "working," if you somehow think that action from a customer base can't and shouldn't change how a corporation functions, then you truly have some odd ideas about business. Very few companies survive long-term with a "***** 'em, they'll buy my product/service and LIKE it" attitude. Yes, you could go through the hassle of jumping ship, but that's annoying for the customer and bad for the company. It's in both parties interests (and profitability) to make things as consumer-friendly as possible.
  • alexanderstraub, on 10/11/2007, -1/+1I am using truphone since 6 month and have convinced my family to join the party. The new truphone Client Version 3.0 is magical. It has all what you need. SMS over WiFi. Calls in fantastic quality provided via VoIP over WiFi or 3G and the most important for me personally a presence service which indicates if your calling partner is online of offline. Something the traditional carrier have never provided. I love innovators like truphone and it is a shame that T-Mobile is not playing along. It is an open world and every phone number should be reachable. If my doctor has a truphone number and I am on T-Mobile and I cannot reach him it would really make me angry if not interested to explore if legal action could be taken.
  • seanodmvp, on 10/11/2007, -0/+0see more bad T-mobile karma here: http://communitygrouptherapy.com/2007/06/18/customer-service-hell-t-mobilehot-spot-not/
  • zadadka, on 10/11/2007, -1/+1I notice the "unlimited calls" is within US only.
  • artemisfox, on 10/11/2007, -1/+0Are there any VOip cell phone services in America similiar to truphone in the UK?
  • mc7winkie, on 10/11/2007, -12/+11Correct me if I'm wrong but it sounds like Truphone is piggy-backing off of the major carriers' networks. Shouldn't T-Mobile be allowed to do this? I don't find what they're doing to be unreasonable or even anti-competitive. If they don't want someone startup making easy money off them why should they extend the courtesy of allowing them access to their network?
  • coit, on 10/11/2007, -2/+1People still use T-Mobile?
  • Error601, on 10/11/2007, -2/+1Yea, that old school trick of running a business that doesn't lose money?
  • Error601, on 10/11/2007, -2/+1Do people not know what monopoly means?
  • mc7winkie, on 10/11/2007, -4/+2If you don't like T-Mobile don't use them. Gosh you people are ridiculous. That's how capitalism and consumerism work.
  • doshindude, on 10/11/2007, -7/+2Skype FTW.
  • rolandde, on 10/11/2007, -6/+1Well, I'm still waiting for a company that re-invigorates the cell-phone marked in the vain that Google/Apple invigorated the internet/computer market place.
  • mc7winkie, on 10/11/2007, -12/+2It's T-Mobile's network. They can do with it as they see fit. They are entitled to protect their investments especially on their own network that they built. I wish that people could explain this to some of these crazy net-neutrality people. Besides, if I could some how get FTP downloads off their network they would undeniably block access to it.

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