Why T-Mobile is Going Over the Top for Voice

It might be seen as a harbinger of things to come, but T-Mobile USA, lagging behind the leaders in the U.S. mobile market, wants to make its Bobsled voice application something users can engage with on any device or carrier, something that would have been a "problem" in earlier days.

Bobsled, originally supporting VoIP conversations between Facebook users, now also supports VoIP calling to telephone numbers.

If you wonder why T-Mobile USA is taking an action that will cannibalize its voice revenues, the answer probably is that T-Mobile USA sees that as an inevitability.

Informa Telecom & Media predicts that North American consumer use of services such as Skype and Google Talk already accounts for 20 percent of all voice activity in 2011.

By 2014, that figure is expected to rise to 40 percent. Messaging also is moving to over the top mechanisms. Some three trillion messages will be sent using over the top apps in 2011, growing to nine trillion messages in three years. By 2015, IP messaging will surpass traditional cellular messaging, Informa predicts.

T-Mobile USA likely assumes that it has less to lose from cannibalizing its voice minutes of use, than it has to gain by becoming an application provider relevant on iPhones and other smart phone devices.

Why T-Mobile is expanding Bobsled