Court injuction in Truphone vs T-Mobile (UK) to set a precedent

First the regulator, then the European Commission and now the judiciary. It seems like mobile operators are out of luck these days. Their comparative higher tariff for basic services is not helping them win any new friends. The days of their unique value proposition is over. Today, alternate technologies such as IEEE 802.x and other Internet based services are challenging the dominant position of GSM/GPRS/EDGE/UMTS etc.

Recently, in a case between Truphone and T-Mobile (UK), a judge granted mandatory injunction forcing T-Mobile (UK) to interconnect with Truphone. Truphone uses the Internet to route mobile calls thus reducing the mobile operator to a last mile mobile network provider.

This and others are creating a momentum. Mobile operators are facing similar situation as that the incumbent telcos faced with local loop unbundling and other aspects of deregulation. At the end of the day, increased competition is always better for a whole lot of people than not. Businesses and consumers are likely to benefit in the long run. It is an encouraging sign for the enterprise mobility industry especially for players such as Private Mobile Networks and BT Mobile.

Another feather in the cap of Internet service providers came from across the atlantic. FCC is planning to aution 30MHz in the upper and 30MHz in the lower 700MHz bands early next year. These frequencies became available as analog broadcasters using TV's UHF channels 52-69 are switching from analog to digital in 2009. The commission Chairman Kevin Martin appears to have circulated a draft order to have open access rules for two 11 MHz blocks of the total 60 MHz in the 700 MHz band that is to be autioned. This is a good news for players such as Truephone and others including Google who seem to have shown interest in bidding.