The European Commission is reported to plan on forcing mobile phone carriers to accept Voice-over-IP applications. According to the reports, EU's telecoms commissioner, Viviane Reding, asked the EU to “undo arbitrary obstacles to 'innovative services' on cellphones.” In addition, it seems that a draft of the VoIP measure is almost completed, yet it hasn't been finished just yet. Currently, each country is allowed to choose what to block on the Internet and what not.

The new plan could be directed towards Deutsche Telekom of Germany, as its T-Mobile subsidiary refused to allow the presence of any VoIP software on its network. According to Deutsche Telekom, the VoIP applications would lead to an excessive bandwidth consumption, yet most of the market watchers believe that the measures were taken so as to protect older revenue models. The German newspaper Handelsblatt says that the company could soon face antitrust charges in case it maintains its position, especially given the fact that Viviane Reding asked countries to take legal action against companies that “block innovative services” through the use of their market power.

The blocking of VoIP applications also applies to the Skype app for the iPhone, even if the software is legally available through the German iTunes Store. Not too long ago, Skype and Nokia announced a partnership to include Skype's application on future mobile phones the Finnish maker would bring to the market, yet their announcement saw a strong reaction coming from wireless carriers in Europe. Though not all of them were against the inclusion of a VoIP app on devices that they would add to their offerings, Nokia announced afterwards that not all phones would include Skype.

Developers of VoIP applications state that the main benefit from using them is the fact that consumers would be provided with low-cost calls to both mobile phones and landlines. Skype even allows users to make calls anywhere in the world through its application, while the charges for the service are rather small compared to the fees wireless carriers ask for.