Mobile Skype

It sometimes is hard to distinguish between a disruption that upsets the existing order of things from those that extend the current business model. VoIP seems to contain elements of each. But one thing seems clear enough. Disruption that creates new markets or market segments disproportionately comes from those with less to lose.

Mobile operator "3", owned by Hutchinson Whampoa, provides an example. It is offering Skype over its 3G networks, using a flat fee data plan. Service is scheduled to start in the U.K. market in early December. Mobile operator 3 has signed a range of deals with internet companies including Google, Skype and eBay in the hope of generating revenues from customers subscribing to use advanced mobile internet services.

3 said it will price the bundle of services in a flat fee structure like fixed line broadband, and they will be available on a new range of handsets called the X-Series to be introduced in the UK on December 1. The new handsets also will support Sling video placeshifting. So does the move extend the current mobile model or disrupt it? Some elements of both, in all likelihood. It makes the mobile platform more valuable for all-new applications. But it also undermines the traditional pricing mechanism for standard voice.