T-Mobile Germany Tries The Jedi Mind Trick With Mobile Skype

from the no-it-isn't-yes-it-is-okay-it-is dept

The Skype app for the iPhone proved to be an instant hit, topping App Store download charts around the world, including Germany, where T-Mobile reminded its customers that using Skype, or any other VoIP app, could get them kicked off its network. The operator now says it's "looking at different ways of dealing with VoIP", perhaps including offering some special plan where users would have to pay some fee to use VoIP. It also says it's not actively blocking any voice apps, although when it begins selling the Nokia N97 smartphone later this year, the Skype application that's normally pre-installed on the device will be stripped out. T-Mobile's justification for removing the app is great: it's not because they don't want people undermining voice revenues by using Skype, but because "by not putting Skype on, subscribers could choose from a number of VoIP apps, and not be limited to just one." That's as opposed to having Skype pre-installed, and customers being able to download and install any other VoIP app alongside it. Only in the world of mobile operators does removing choices for customers actually increase customer choice.

Carlo Longino is an expert at the Insight Community. To get insight and analysis from Carlo Longino and other experts on challenges your company faces, click here.

12 Comments | Leave a Comment..

Customer Discovers T-Mobile's 'Unlimited' SMS Plan Not So Unlimited Thanks To $26,000 Bill

from the well-that-clears-that-up dept

It's getting rather ridiculous to keep seeing companies offer "unlimited" services, only to later find out that they're not unlimited at all. Yakko Warner points out that this just happened to one guy in Pennsylvania, who along with a friend, tried to beat the world record for most text messages in a month (182,000) by messaging each other back and forth. They figured they were fine, because they each had unlimited text messaging plans, but after one of them sent 140,000 messages, he received a bill for $26,000 and learned that, for T-Mobile, "unlimited" actually means 100,000, and those additional 40,000 messages cost quite a pretty penny. To T-Mobile's credit, the company has agreed to let the charge slide, but it makes you wonder why it has that cap in the first place if it's advertising the service as unlimited (and then ignoring the cap when people pass it). Why not actually remove the limit?

62 Comments | Leave a Comment..

T-Mobile's Embedded SIM Cards: Great For Connected Devices, Bad For Consumers?

from the what's-the-real-motivation? dept

T-Mobile got a lot of press last week when it announced a new, tiny embedded SIM card to be used in connected devices like "smart" electrical meters. The new SIM is much smaller than the traditional stamp-sized cards, and the company says it can withstand exposure to the elements, making it ideal for machine-to-machine communications with outdoor devices, or in connected consumer electronic devices. However, The Register has a slightly different take on the new SIM, wondering if it's really driven by a desire to do away with removable SIM cards -- meaning T-Mobile could sell devices that it would be extremely difficult, if not impossible, to use on other operators. As the site notes, the electronics on SIM cards are actually minuscule, but they're packaged in a bigger plastic housing to make them easier for people to handle. Theoretically, T-Mobile could use the new, smaller SIM in devices instead of today's standard SIMs, and encourage manufacturers to build them in such a way so that the tiny SIM was essentially impossible to remove. This might not make a lot of sense for handsets, but for other connected electronic devices, it could prove very attractive to operators, particularly if they're subsidizing those devices. It should be noted that this is purely speculation at this point, but given mobile operators' undying love of trying to lock in their customers, it wouldn't be too surprising to see it happen.

Carlo Longino is an expert at the Insight Community. To get insight and analysis from Carlo Longino and other experts on challenges your company faces, click here.

12 Comments | Leave a Comment..

Want To Get Out Of Your iPhone Contract on T-Mobile Germany? Easy, Just Use Skype

from the verboten dept

Skype has gotten some press this week after it announced the availability of a an iPhone client for its service (except in Canada, though, thanks to patent issues). The application only works over WiFi, though, and not the cellular data network. Operators typically say these restrictions are in order to prevent the use of massive amounts of bandwidth and harm network performance for other users; what seems more likely is they're worried that Skype will "steal voice minutes" away from their network. That's a silly belief though, because when users are already paying for a big bundle of minutes, and have unlimited off-peak minutes, and so on, it's not very likely they'll go to the trouble of using Skype for most calls. Perhaps the only ones they'd use such an application for are for calls they weren't going to make through the operator's network anyway -- such as international calls, for which they'd use a cheaper landline, a calling card, or wait until they're in front of a PC. Blocking Skype from working over the mobile network only hurts the operators by putting up a barrier in front of customers, it really doesn't protect any revenues. But no matter, the blocking -- or worse -- goes on. In Germany, where Skype is the top download from the App Store, T-Mobile (the operator which sells the iPhone there) is threatening to terminate the contracts of customers who use Skype on their iPhones, because the contracts prohibit the use of VoIP services. That's a nice touch: play by our rules, or you'll no longer have the privilege of giving us your money. You know, that doesn't sound so bad, because then users are free to take their business elsewhere. Although, as Skype's general counsel points out, every other mobile operator in Germany also bans VoIP.

Carlo Longino is an expert at the Insight Community. To get insight and analysis from Carlo Longino and other experts on challenges your company faces, click here.

9 Comments | Leave a Comment..

T-Mobile Takes Out Some Handset Unlockers

from the the-only-confused-people-here-are-us dept

T-Mobile has won damages and an injunction (via Phone Scoop) against several companies that were taking bulk quantities of its prepaid handsets, unlocking them, and then reselling them. The company calls such activity "prepaid phone trafficking," when it's really just exploiting a poor business model. As in other suits filed by other operators, it sounds like T-Mobile based this one on copyright or trademark claims, saying "Consumers are harmed and may be misled about the source and origin of their mobile phones... Because the phones may still carry T-Mobile's brand, consumers may believe they are purchasing handsets manufactured for T-Mobile and covered by original warranties." That's slightly counter-intuitive: T-Mobile says the unlockers made their money by buying handsets locked to the operator, then unlocking them so they could charge a higher price when they were resold. According to T-Mobile, the phones carried a higher price, weren't sold in original packaging and didn't come with manuals. They were also, presumably, accompanied by advertising playing up the fact that they could be used on any operator's network. All of this combined would seem to make it pretty clear to buyers that they weren't buying an original, "official" T-Mobile product. So where's the basis for the confusion claims?

Carlo Longino is an expert at the Insight Community. To get insight and analysis from Carlo Longino and other experts on challenges your company faces, click here.

21 Comments | Leave a Comment..

Price Ceiling For Mobile Voice Service Continues To Fall

from the a-good-kind-of-deflation dept

T-Mobile has announced that it's expanding its offer of a $50 per month unlimited voice service plan across the US, becoming the first of the country's four biggest operators to start to fall into line with the $50 voice ceiling. Given the constant price battles in the mobile industry, you'd expect the other major operators to follow T-Mobile, or lower the prices of their current unlimited offerings that also include text messages and data. But one interesting aspect of the T-Mobile plan is that it's only available to customers that have had T-Mobile accounts in good standing for at least 22 months, making it more of an effort to retain existing customers than attract new ones. This reflects the rapidly changing focus of the business from attracting new customers to also retaining current ones. One of the quandaries posed by US mobile operators was that, historically, they gave better deals and prices (especially on new handsets) to new customers than current ones, giving good customers an incentive to churn to a rival so they could get a free new device. This stance has changed over the last couple of years, as the industry standard contract length has grown from one to two years. Second, the T-Mobile offer reflects the company's standing in the market. Its quarterly net subscriber additions are falling, while the company's seeing a lot of competition at the low end of the market. This new plan is aimed at helping on both fronts.

Carlo Longino is an expert at the Insight Community. To get insight and analysis from Carlo Longino and other experts on challenges your company faces, click here.

12 Comments | Leave a Comment..

AT&T And T-Mobile Pay Up For Not Being Truthful About Voicemail Hackability

from the caller-id-spoofing dept

Many mobile phones' voicemail systems have worked on the basis of checking the caller ID of the incoming caller -- and if it matched the number of the voicemail box, it would automatically push the caller through to the admin interface. The idea was that if the owner of the box was calling, he or she shouldn't have to put in the passcode to get to the messages. The only problem with this was that, if anyone could spoof your caller ID, they could access your voicemail. After a few high profile such voicemail attacks, many mobile operators urged customers to change their voicemail preferences to require a passcode, no matter what. Still, there were some operations out there, that went under names like SpoofCard, Love Detect and Liar Card, that would spoof a caller ID to get access to a voicemail box. The company behind them has been fined, but what may be more interesting is that T-Mobile and AT&T were also both fined for apparently being misleading about their susceptibility to the hack.

That seems a bit strange, and the article is woefully short on details, unfortunately. Pretty much anything is hackable given certain circumstances, and it always seems a bit odd to totally blame a hacking victim for being hacked. So it would be good to know why T-Mobile and AT&T, in particular, were fined in this case. Did they not even allow passcodes to be enabled for those who wanted to avoid this potential hack?

13 Comments | Leave a Comment..

T-Mobile Says It Was Only Kidding About That 1GB Soft Cap On G1 Data Use

from the oh-that? dept

So after a bunch of tech sites pointed out how ridiculous it was that T-Mobile was claiming "unlimited" data plans on the new G1 "Google Android" phone, T-Mobile quickly scrambled to say that they were ditching the 1 gig limit, though they may still replace it with something else (perhaps when tech bloggers aren't paying attention, one would imagine).

10 Comments | Leave a Comment..

T-Mobile Sends G1 Android Data Users To The Slow Lane: 50kbps Over 1 Gig

from the slow-lane dept

There's a ton of predictable press coverage and reviews of T-Mobile's new G1 phone -- the first commercially available phone that uses Google's Android operating system -- but Broadband Reports has dug through the fine print of the user agreement and noticed something rather interesting. While the marketing materials scream out about a $25 "unlimited" data plan, the fine print notes that if you go over 1Gig per month, the rest of your data traffic that month may be slowed down to a piddling 50kbps. So, before you get that G1 and plan to surf away, recognize that while, unlimited, T-Mobile apparently has no intention of letting you actually surf with any reasonable bandwidth after a certain point.

32 Comments | Leave a Comment..

Before Getting Bought By Verizon Wireless, Alltel Tried To Buy Sprint, T-Mobile And AT&T Wireless

from the merger-mania dept

After being rumored for years, Verizon Wireless finally bought Alltel earlier this month. However, Alltel's CEO has now admitted that the company wasn't just looking to be acquired these past few years. It had, itself, aggressively looked into buying Sprint, T-Mobile or even AT&T Wireless at times. In fact, it tried to buy Sprint three separate times. The other two certainly seem like longshots. Deutsche Telekom appears to have no real interest in getting rid of T-Mobile, and depending on which version of AT&T Wireless you're talking about, it would have been difficult to convince the various parent companies involved that a sale to Alltel made sense. And that, of course, ignores the fact that T-Mobile and AT&T Wireless were from the GSM camp, rather than the CDMA camp. Still, it is interesting to see that the smaller Alltel was looking at buying its way up the food chain.

19 Comments | Leave a Comment..

T-Mobile Sues Starbucks For Over Eager Switch To Free WiFi

from the that-wasn't-what-we-bargained-for... dept

Back in February, Starbucks surprised an awful lot of people by signing up to use AT&T's WiFi offering, ending the exclusive deal it had for many, many years with T-Mobile (and Mobilestar before T-Mobile purchased that company). Part of the AT&T deal was that it would offer some amount of free WiFi -- something T-Mobile/Starbucks never did. There was some early confusion about the deal concerning whether T-Mobile would continue offering service and how the two services would overlap. It turns out that it wasn't just confusing to us reading about it -- it was confusing to T-Mobile as well.

T-Mobile has now sued Starbucks over the transition, saying that the company has gone well beyond what the two companies had agreed to. The original plan was that T-Mobile would gradually transition the network to AT&T, and the companies would work together to make sure things worked well for customers of each company. However, just recently, Starbucks pushed forward with the plan to offer some number of "free" WiFi hours to AT&T customers -- much to the annoyance of T-Mobile, who says most of the WiFi equipment in use is still T-Mobile's, and the company isn't getting paid at all for the free hours (an interesting question could be whether or not AT&T is getting paid for that usage).

Basically, the infrastructure transition has barely begun, and Starbucks is already acting as though it's complete, shifting over to the business model provided by AT&T, without having that work within the parameters of T-Mobile's model. While the legal result will almost certainly come down to contractual terms, the real issue may be that this suggests the promised "smooth transition" from T-Mobile to AT&T may not be very smooth at all. T-Mobile is going to have less and less incentive to make sure that the network really works all that well, especially if it feels that it's being cheated out of money for the use of its network.

34 Comments | Leave a Comment..

Sorry T-Mobile, Other Companies Can Use The Color Magenta

from the trademark-isn't-ownership dept

A while back T-Mobile received a trademark on the color magenta for use in selling mobile phone services in certain markets, but it seems to be taking the trademark a little more seriously than it should, even to the point of threatening the blog Engadget for having a magenta-colored logo. It also took mobile operator Telia to court in Denmark for its own use of a magenta logo, but missed out on a couple of important facts: Telia and T-Mobile don't compete in the same markets in Denmark and (more importantly) Telia's magenta is a different shade of Magenta. The court has not just tossed out the lawsuit, but has dumped the court costs and Telia's legal fees onto T-Mobile's bill. Hopefully that will teach them that trademark law shouldn't be abused.

23 Comments | Leave a Comment..

Who Do You Side With? Telco Lawyers And Binding Arbitrators Or Class Action Lawyers?

from the pick-a-side-and-hold-your-nose dept

There are times when you hear of lawsuits and you really don't know who to favor. In the latest such case, the Supreme Court has turned down an appeal from T-Mobile on an appeals court decision that said that T-Mobile's contract terms requiring "binding arbitration" are unenforceable if those contracts also ban class action lawsuits against the company. This doesn't mean the Supreme Court totally agrees with it, but it didn't find it worth getting involved at this point (often the Supreme Court will wait for different circuits to disagree on a point of law before weighing in -- but in the meantime, it appears that the Supreme Court is not upset by the lower court ruling).

As you probably know, many of the contracts you sign these days require binding arbitration, rather than the ability to go to court over a dispute. Companies like to claim this is because binding arbitration is faster and simpler, but it's really because arbitrators (who are hired by the company) side with the company over 95% of the time. At the same time, the companies also try to block you from being a part of any class action lawsuit, and it's this combination that the court found problematic.

The real issue here is pretty straightforward: companies are trying to get you to give up most of your rights contractually -- but not through any sort of negotiation. They're basically trying to ram through agreements in the fine print that you'll never read that take away any sort of remedy you might have against the company in case the company does something wrong. While a fair contract is one thing, these contracts are not fair; they are not negotiable, and they're often not at all clear. It seems that companies are taking them too far, often depriving customers of perfectly reasonable rights -- so it seems like a good thing that the courts are pushing back a little.

6 Comments | Leave a Comment..

So Many Reasons Why Deutsche Telekom Won't Buy Sprint

from the pin-drop dept

There's a rumor going around that Deutsche Telekom is thinking about buying Sprint. This is a bad idea for any number of reasons. Deutsche Telekom owns T-Mobile, which competes with Sprint, and which has certainly fallen way behind AT&T, Verizon Wireless and Sprint in terms of coverage and next generation network deployments. At the same time Sprint has definitely faced some tough times recently that have weighed heavily on the stock. So, you could see why Deutsche might initially think about it. T-Mobile is behind in the game, and merging with Sprint could (emphasis on could) jumpstart the business a bit. Plus, it's reasonable to think that Sprint may be undervalued these days. But... it's still a bad idea. T-Mobile and Sprint use totally different network technologies. Sprint is still dealing with the mess of trying to integrate Nextel's iDen system into its own CDMA-based system (which is part of the reason the company has been in trouble lately), and dumping a third totally incompatible technology into the mix doesn't seem wise. You could (again, emphasis on could) argue that Sprint now has some experience merging totally incompatible networks, but so far it's not exactly good experience. All in all, this seems like someone tossing out a suggestion. It's hard to see this as a legitimate possibility.

14 Comments | Leave a Comment..

Dear T-Mobile, The Point Of 3G Is For Data Speeds

from the you-can't-be-serious dept

T-Mobile was the one national US mobile operator who really didn't have much of a strategy when it came to upgrading its network. While Sprint, Verizon and AT&T all were working on 3G options, T-Mobile kind of sat around twiddling its thumbs. Then it finally realized that it was way behind and made an effort to catch up. Years after everyone else got around to launching stuff (and as they're all now setting plans for their 4G options), T-Mobile is finally launching its 3G wireless service. But in a move that makes absolutely no sense, it's only for voice -- not for data. If it's only for voice... there's no reason to move to 3G. The very purpose of the 3G mobile network was to enable higher bandwidth for data. This is like building an entire highway next to a perfectly good bike trail... and then saying the highway is only for bicycles. Why bother? Update: Well, phew. Turns out the original story was simply not true. T-Mobile launched with voice and data...

22 Comments | Leave a Comment..

Engadget Mobile Threatened For Using T-Mobile's Trademarked Magenta

from the morons-in-a-hurry dept

We've certainly seen some dumb trademark lawsuit threats lately, but T-Mobile parent Deutsche Telekom's supposed threats to Engadget may take the cake. It's not that extraordinary for a company to trademark a distinct color that it uses in its logo, and that's exactly what T-Mobile did last year with a trademark (in Germany only) on the color magenta. Now, it's important to realize that this doesn't mean T-Mobile "owns" that color or can forbid anyone else from using it. It really just means that competing providers offering similar goods and services might run into trouble for using the same color, potentially leading to consumer confusion. When this news broke, plenty of people got up in arms, suggesting that T-Mobile "owned" magenta, which just isn't true. However, it does look like its lawyers think it gives them rights far beyond what it actually does.

According to Engadget, Deutsche Telekom lawyers have sent a nastygram to Engadget, because the blog uses magenta in the logo for its sister site, Engadget Mobile. Of course, it's hard to believe that anyone would go to Engadget Mobile and believe it was somehow affiliated with T-Mobile. The logos are quite different, and the services they offer (obviously) are totally unrelated. In fact, this whole thing seemed so ridiculous that I assumed it was an April Fool's joke -- though the folks at Engadget insist it's not. And, if you want icing on the cake, last year Engadget was one of a few sites that defended T-Mobile for its magenta trademark when it became news last year.

12 Comments | Leave a Comment..

Why The Wireless Industry Is Moving To Flat-Rate Pricing

from the lower-transaction-costs dept

One of the recurring trends in high-tech markets is that as information goods get cheaper, they're increasingly sold as all-you-can-eat bundles rather than as individual units. This has been true of land-line telephone service for decades. In the late 1990s, we saw the same transition occur in Internet access. In this decade, we've seen the explosive growth of Netflix, which is an all-you-can-eat plan for video. Now it appears that cell phone companies are inching in that direction too, as Mike discussed last week. For $99/month, Verizon Wireless, AT&T, and T-Mobile will let you talk on your cell phone as much as you want. Sprint is apparently considering adopting a similar plan. This isn't actually all that new.

There are two fundamental economic forces at work here. First, metering imposes costs, both on consumers and on carriers. For carriers, there are the obvious expenses of keeping track of billing information, as well as the attendant support costs when an angry customer calls to complain about unexpected charges. For the customer, metering imposes the mental overhead of having to keep track of whether it's currently "peak" or "off peak" time, how many minutes are in his plan, whether he's currently "roaming," etc. A lot of customers are happy to pay a little bit extra for the peace of mind of knowing exactly how much they're going to pay each month without having to keep track of their calling activity. Second, the wireless market, like the phone, Internet, and DVD markets, is capital-intensive. Unless the network is already fully loaded, the marginal user costs wireless carriers close to nothing. As a result, metered pricing often causes under-utilization of the network because minutes are priced far above their marginal cost. Switching to a flat-rate plan can be economically efficient because it encourages greater utilization of the network without undermining the carriers' ability to recover their fixed costs. That has always been the rationale behind the free night and weekend minutes offered by a lot of cell phone companies over the last few years. They're just expanding it so it applies 24/7.

Timothy Lee is an expert at the Insight Community. To get insight and analysis from Timothy Lee and other experts on challenges your company faces, click here.

26 Comments | Leave a Comment..

Mobile Operators Go Unlimited... Just As ISPs Insist They Need To Charge Per Byte?

from the please-explain... dept

There was a ton of press coverage yesterday over the fact that one-by-one, Verizon Wireless, AT&T and T-Mobile all announced $99 "unlimited" calling plans, ahead of Sprint who had actually been rumored to be gearing up to launch just such a plan. There were a few different storylines that could make this interesting. For example, it's not clear why it's such a huge deal when regional operator MetroPCS has been offering unlimited calling for ages (at a cheaper price). Hell, AT&T Wireless (when it was run by current Sprint CEO Dan Hesse) launched a $99 unlimited calling plan almost exactly a decade ago.

However, what really struck me as interesting is seeing all of these companies rush towards "flat-rate, all-you-can-eat" pricing, just as broadband providers are insisting they need to switch from flat-rate, all-you-can eat pricing to metered pricing, which some pundits are insisting is a better system. So why is it that one group of companies is moving in one direction, while the other is going in exactly the opposite direction? There are a few factors, but the biggest is the competition issue. Mobile operators are doing so because they feel forced to by competitive pressures (which is evidence in those three companies all announcing plans on the same day, in part out of worries that the fourth would beat them to it). As has been pointed out over and over again, the same simply does not exist in the broadband world in the US to the extent that it does in the mobile space. Some might also point out that capacity questions are different for both sets of providers. Mobile phone operators likely have fewer capacity issues to deal with as a result of unlimited calling than broadband providers do with unlimited internet access plans. However, mobile operators certainly are no strangers to capacity issues -- and they mostly dealt with it by (gasp!) investing in infrastructure so they could support unlimited plans.

20 Comments | Leave a Comment..

Starbucks Adds AT&T WiFi; Now You've Got A Choice

from the would-you-like-the-tall-or-the-vente-wifi? dept

For many years, Starbucks has provided a huge footprint for fee-based WiFi from T-Mobile (originally Mobilestar). While many, many others had determined that it made more sense to offer free WiFi in coffee shops and other places to attract users, Starbucks stuck by the relatively expensive T-Mobile WiFi offering. The deal was apparently somewhat (though not fantastically) profitable for both companies, which is why they never seemed to budge from it, even as the idea of fee-based WiFi lost a lot of its luster. However, it looks like things are finally shaking up a bit. Starbucks has now announced that it's also adding AT&T's hotspot offering to its stores, which is a pretty big deal, since AT&T offers access to its WiFi hotspots for free to most DSL customers. Prior to this, most of AT&T's hotspots were found in McDonalds -- so adding Starbucks is a big win.

It's interesting to note, however, that Starbucks hasn't dumped T-Mobile, it's just added AT&T. It's not clear if this means that Starbucks will be installing separate WiFi equipment for both services, but given the recent deal between Apple and Starbucks to let iPhone users access iTunes via WiFi for free, you had to figure that the company was going to be changing some of its WiFi backend equipment. Also given AT&T's iPhone connection, it shouldn't be a huge surprise that AT&T was a part of the new Starbucks offering. The other interesting bit is that for non-subscribers, the AT&T WiFi will be noticeably cheaper in one-off use than T-Mobile's -- meaning even if T-Mobile hasn't been "dumped" it may have just lost many one-time users. If anything, this may continue to push Starbucks to move closer and closer to finally giving up the paid solution and offering WiFi for free -- just as many Starbucks managers have been begging the company to do for years.

16 Comments | Leave a Comment..

T-Mobile Sued For Forcing People To Accept (And Pay For) Text Messages

from the pls-dnt-mk-me-gt-txt-msgs dept

It's not too hard to remember the day when a lot of people couldn't receive text messages on their mobile phones. I still sometimes ask people to see if they use text messages. Apparently, if they're on T-Mobile, I shouldn't even bother. Even if you don't want to use text messaging, T-Mobile requires users to accept messages... and to pay for them. That's resulted in a class action lawsuit against the company for unfairly forcing people to pay for text messages they don't want. While it may not be a huge issue right now, if SMS spam picks up, it could become a very important issue.

44 Comments | Leave a Comment..