T-Mobile Germany, iPhone’s exclusive carrier in Germany, have announced that they would not be allowing customers to use the Skype application on either the iPhone or Blackberry devices.
T-Mobile spokesperson Alexander von Schmettow told the German online site, the Local:
“It is clearly stated in our customer contracts that such services may not be used…There are two reasons for this – because the high level of traffic would hinder our network performance, and because if the Skype programme didn’t work properly, customers would make us responsible for it.”
Tech-savvy users should apparently not even consider figuring out a work-around, because T-Mobile will immediately “cut users off”.
“Those who violate their contracts can expect to have them cancelled. It’s the same with any contract. If you rent a no-pets apartment and expect no one to notice your little dog, you can’t be surprised when your landlord comes knocking.”
Skype have responded to the news in a post on the company’s blog
“This is a real shame: many other operators around the world know very well that people want to use innovative Internet applications, like Skype, and that’s the reason they pay their ISP to access the Internet in the first place. On top of that, there is no technical justification for this arbitrary blocking of Skype, and it represents a barrier to online business put in place by a private company just because they can, because they control access to the Internet.”
Ironically, Skype is currently also the most downloaded iPhone application in Germany.
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