Vodafone Presents Skype Internet Calling for Mobiles

Mobile operator Vodafone, that currently has over 200 million subscribers worldwide, has presented Internet-calling for cellphones with Skype, which it said it may launch in the future.

The operator unveiled the application codenamed Starfish at CeBIT and it has yet to decide whether it will start offering the service to its customers mainly because it would affect its traditional mobile voice telephone business.

"We have not yet decided if we will launch it, or the commercial terms and prices," Jan Holzberg, the manager for the product at Vodafone Group, said on Thursday.

Starfish allows mobile phone users to see a list of buddies from several chat and Internet calling groups including Yahoo, AOL, Skype and MSN as well as to send them messages or make Internet calls.

The calls only use the traditional wireless voice channel from the phone to the radio base station and the rest is carried over the Internet even if the call goes halfway around the world, comparing to normal voice calls that would be routed over the traditional network.

The Starfish software for mobile phones is practically the same Skype software that mobile operator 3 has launched last year in an attempt to attract new customers for boosting network traffic.

The development of Starfish is a clear sign that the world's top mobile operator, Vodafone and Skype, the world's largest Internet communication company are looking to work together.

This announcement is somewhat odd, coming after a survey that revealed what a big threat Skype-like services are for mobile phone operators and how voice calls will no longer represent the primary revenue for carriers in about six years time. Considering that Skype-like services are significantly more affordable, maybe mobile operators will all eventually switch to such services.