TeliaSonera To Charge Extra For VoIP in Spain and Sweden

Given the obscene data rates that mobile operators charge across Europe (specifically when roaming) one can always only hope that there is a WiFi network near.<p>The degrading / delaying of VoIP traffic (and other rt data traffic) does even happen with some fixed line operators in Europe - though not with Skype - they then call it P2P traffic and tell stories about file sharing etc. Had that with a provider in South-France ... if you pay us 10-times the rate we stop the fiddling with your traffic...<p>I guess this move from TeliaSonera again shows that like with other industries self-regulatory approaches do not work at least with industries where you have regional monopolies / oligopolies, high barriers for entry and a mindset of used car salesmen (no offence) across the industry.<p>We need to regulate this as well as the fixed line market or we're soon back at $200+ p.m. for (usable) fixed lines and similar increases for usable mobile access - they advertise fiber access here in the UK for $40 per month but give you a 5-20GB p.m. data volume (how many minutes is that good for). They call that fair use - but all those rules do of course not apply to the costly extra services they sell themselves.<p>It's high time to regulate the mobile providers with regards to data / IP services - earlier regulations regarding roaming in Europe have shown that they otherwise do not see any limits in ripping off their customers.<p>And someone should explain to those in charge of oversight of this industry that Cisco's promotional material (that showed exponential growth in mobile traffic and would turn all mobile provider latest next year unprofitable and is so happily cited in that industry when it comes down to regulations) is just that - promotional material to sell their network equipment and not facts.

I am a swedish Telia customer, and have been one since '08. Their service has always been top notch so I had every intention of signing on for another two years with them.<p>And just like that, I lost all my confidence in them and will go where else from now on.

It has pretty much always been against the terms of service to use VoIP on your mobile data plan. At least for the vast majority of service providers in Sweden, just that it hasn't been enforced (my understanding of it at least). The only thing that changes now is that it is allowed (but with a fee attached to it).<p>I guess the problem stems from that competition has made mobile data plans too cheap and thus have been subsidized by regular calls. If the customers take advantage of this and use VoIP instead the service providers are in trouble.<p>Which kind of makes sense. The only reason you'd ever want VoIP on your phone is so that you can skip the middleman (who is the one that pays for the network your call goes through, VoIP or not).

Given the huge margin on mobile voice minutes, I'm surprised that it's taken this long for one of the operators to try this. Anecdotally, other operators in Europe have silently degraded VoIP traffic in the hope that the better quality GSM traffic will prevail but this is taking things to the next level.<p>If this does continue, expect Neelie Kroes to start getting involved which will probably see them going back to the silent degradation model.

Time for some EU-wide regulation here! Should not be legal to charge your customers depending on what content they download, with their connection. When you rent a X mbit line you should get that and nothing less.

I'm curious that a similar movement has not been started over something like whatsapp, in my experience, the vast amount of my friends (in the 20-25 year old region) use Whatsapp almost exclusively, and almost always using a 3g connection. It means they have to pay only for data.<p>I assume whatsapp would be harder to detect and stop, but its a wonder that mobile vendors are not up in arms.<p>The day is coming when someone will arrive with a new type of carrier, Data. That is all. calls,sms everything is handled through the web.

Im curious how they will actually implement this. Block everything not going over port 80 or 443 and also block many other types of services? Deep packet inspection? New voice services and apps turn up all the time.<p>There is no way they can block "voice data" (their double speak not mine) without also bloking lots of other services, as collateral damage.

I'm not sure how the technology works - is some of the spectrum reserved for voice-calls, such that there is a legitimate traffic shaping reason to want to keep voice traffic in its place?