Truphone vs T-Mobile: handsets at dawn

Link: GigaOM CellCarriers fear mobile VoIP planet

Something interesting is afoot in the world of Truphone. We got the same press statement as Om Malik at Gigaom who wrote this article, and as Om did such a good job writing about it I’m not going to reinvent the wheel. However, here’s something interesting.

In a nutshell, Truphone are claiming T-Mobile is refusing to interconnect with them, nor route their 07978 UK number range. This effectively means that T-Mobile customers calling those Truphone numbers will get number unobtainable. The same statement says “T-Mobile refuses to interconnect with operators offering VoIP as a matter of policy.”

Further down, James Tagg – Truphone’s CEO – is quoted as saying: “T-Mobile will argue that it is not ‘blocking’ Truphone but is merely negotiating on price. T-Mobile receives 35p per minute from its customers but is offering only 0.21p per minute to Truphone even when Truphone’s costs are 9p per minute to terminate the call. T-Mobile is blocking our numbers unless we accept this loss-making offer and, since T-Mobile is the only company that can route calls from its customers it has a complete veto on the Truphone service.”

So, questions questions. Are T-Mobile bluntly refusing to interconnect with Truphone and route its number block as ‘a matter of policy’, or is it down to the cost? Why do Truphone have termination costs of 9p per minute? From April 1st 2007, Ofcom lowered the termination costs for Orange, Vodafone, T-Mobile, and O2 to 5.1p, with Three set to 5.9p. With Truphone not having to pay for a national GSM, 3G or WiFi network, why are their ‘costs’ so high?

I’ve spoken to some sources – who wish to remain anonymous and therefore can’t be quoted – and there’s more than meets the eye to this issue. However, this one has the potential to run on for a while, it seems.. and when things of this nature inevitably turn legal, the only people that’re guaranteed to win are the lawyers.