Vyke's mobile VoIP has the same N95 problems like Truphone

I nearly forgot to mention: The Inquirer reports that yet another mobile Voip provider has problems with the crippled Nokia N95, supplied by Orange and Vodafone in the UK. Vyke Mobile has also fallen into the Truphone trap.

Mobile incumbents agree to lock down alternative VoIP providers

The air is getting even thinner for mobile VoIP companies like Truphone or Wifimobile, tells The Register. The Open Mobile Terminal Alliance, a organisation of big mobile operators like Orange, Vodafone, T-Mobile and 3 has published a guidance for network operators and handset manufacturers on provisioning and maintaining VoIP settings on new handsets. It covers only the usage of pre-installed VoIP clients on handsets, such as that used by Truphone or Wifimobile. Applications which are downloaded later, like Fring or Vyke, go free.

According to the OMTP specifications, operators are entitled to remove or lock down VoIP applications on subsidised handsets, but they must provide the ability to remove that lock when the contract period expires, just as they now will release a handset to be used on another network (SIM lock).

Bad luck for some independent mobile VoIP providers, as the incumbents agree on that the initial VoIP settings should be securely protected in the terminal, and can only be changed by the operator. When the service contract comes to an end, the customer can request the provider to unlock the Terminal’s VoIP settings and associate the pre-installed voice applications with alternative VoIP service providers.

This means in most cases: No Truphone or Wifimobile in the first two years of a contract.

Much better off are independent mobile VoIP companies which install their own applications, such as Skype, Fring, Gizmo Project, Jajah, iSkoot, Nimbuzz or Yeigo. The customer may be able to install third-party applications (Java or other Terminal OS applications) that offer VoIP calling using third-party VoIP providers. The only VoIP applications that are forced to use the operator’s settings are those that were pre-installed on the Terminal, and only during the term of the contract that the Terminal was supplied with.

The mobile phone users must be informed that VoIP has been locked or disabled. So the removal of menu items, in the way that Vodafone and Orange crippled their Nokia N95, wouldn't be allowed. The Register states that the guidance is not binding to the member companies. But as so many network operators were involved in writing, it's surely what we will see next on the entire European or world market.

Let's see if that's acceptable to regulators such as UK's Ofcom and what e. g. Truphone will do. Their new software Truphone 3.0 is so feature rich and has presence functions so that it seems quite similar to the mentioned "alternative VoIP applications" to me. If Truphone 4.0 packed it all in the software, instead of using Nokias underlying SIP functions, they would be out of trouble.

But then Truphone would suck as much battery as Fring does.


UPDATE:

I got an email from Wifimobile's John O'Prey. He says that his company is NOT affected. "This is not the case as our client is a stand alone application which can be installed. I would be most grateful if you could kindly correct this."

Sorry for that!

Qino and Jajah get even more engaged

There were rumours about a new deal of the investment company Qino Flagship which recently had invested in Jajah. Now it's out: Daniel Mattes, co-founder and chairman of Jajah, joins Qino's advisory board. Mattes and his fellow founder Roman Scharf also bought a less then five per cent equity stake from Qino.

Mattes says they want to provide their network and experience to Qino's other companies. One directly starts to wonder which ones. Update Software? Pankl?

With Jajah's Mattes in Qino's advisory board the two companies want to emphasize their long term relationship. It started in 2000 and brought Qino already a 5 per cent share in Jajah as compensation for consulting and financial help. With the latest deal Qino now controls nearly 8 per cent of Jajah. Its stock price has doubled in just one month.

Google doesn't take over Jajah, yet

There where rumours that Google would take over Jajah because last week "three Google airplanes" had landed in the Austrian city of Salzburg.

One small detail escaped the rumourers: There is no Jajah in Salzburg. Most of their people are still working in Vienna and in Israel. On the other hand the new Jajah office in Mountain View (California) is, as far as I know, barely staffed. So Google would probably have to travel to Austria for a takeover. But nothing of that is true, as we learn now from the local Newspaper Salzburger Nachrichten.

It was just Google's CEO Eric Schmidt meeting with his old friends from university. A high profile Princeton alumni meeting, hosted by Austrian industrialist Gerhard Andlinger, attended also by Forbes' publisher Steve Forbes and Germany's ex foreign secretary Joschka Fischer. Names like Newton and Guggenheim were also mentioned.

But still the question remains: Why would Schmidt travel in three airplaines? But maybe this was just a gross exaggeration.