You'd think that T-Mobile would have better things to do than to mess with Truphone. According to Andy and Om, T-Mobile UK is refusing to connect calls from it's subscribers to Truphone's inbound numbers, and according to Om, T-Mobile is refusing to connect to low cost carriers like Truphone. Instead, they have offered a financial plan to Truphone which guarantee's that Truphone will lose money. For the record, Truphone's core business is enabling their customers to use VoIP enabled cell phones to provide very low cost service. Apparently, T-Mobile has a different business model, and apparently has to do with their inability to compete on value and a ruthless treatment of a competitor at the expense of their customers. Or something like that.
But that's not the whole story, because the investment arm of T-Mobile's parent company just invested serious money into Jah-Jah. Makes you sort of wonder if these guys talk. Or, maybe the VC guys use Truphone, so that the T-Mobile UK guys can't talk to VC guys, because they blocked the lines to the phones.
So, for all my Truphone using friends, why don't you have some fun at T-Mobile's expense:
- Encourage all your Doctor friends to get Truphones, to maximize the chances of medical malpractice suits that can be tagged to T-Mobile.
- Ask anyone you see if they have a T-Mobile account, and wonder aloud who they are going to block next.
- Take a picture of Stalin (or whatever censor-happy dictator you happen to like), write something on it like "I like T-Mobile because they share my opinion on freedom of speech", mail it in. Mail in two.
- Try to call a Truphone number, then call customer service to complain. Repeat.
3 comments:
Or save yourself a lot of time and effort and use oneFone by Wifimobile, who have actually developed their own software which T-Mobile and other carriers can't block, rather than configuring Nokia settings on a program that T-Mobile don't want on their handsets.
Where does the FCC stand on this?
What rights does T-Mobile have as a 'network owner' have to run their business the way that they want to run their business.
Is this a national legal case OR can states rule/control commerce in this area (the way that Maine has implemented net neutrality)?http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/06/16/2041247
Does Truphone expect to bring about a legal case soon or will they be taking their time like the recent 712 area code case against FCC.
Cheers,
Dean Collins
www.collins.net.pr/blog
Blocking Truphone is like trying to cut all of Hydra’s heads. It’s not only Truphone which is offering VoIP over 3G and over Wifi. It’s also Fring, Wifimobile, Mobiboo, Yeigo, aql and thousands of other companies worldwide. In fact every SIP based VoIP provider can do a quite similar job like Truphone. It makes no difference if you install your SIP login data into a mobile phone or an ATA or a soft phone.
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