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That’s the story from Tony Glover at the UK’s The Business online:
Microsoft has developed a Skype-style free internet voice service for mobile phones that City analysts believe could wipe billions off the market value of operators such as Vodafone.
The service is included in a mobile version of Microsoft Office Communicator due to be released this year. It will take the form of a voice-over internet protocol (VoIP) application that allows Office users to make free voice calls over wi-fi enabled phones running Windows Mobile software. It uses the internet as a virtual phone network as well as accessing e-mail, PowerPoint and other Office applications.
Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer dropped his bombshell at the mobile operators’ annual 3GSM show in Barcelona last week. The significance of his remarks was missed because of his effusive and eccentric delivery.
Ouch! Ballmer demonstrated a VoIP call during the keynote and VoIP was also mentioned briefly in the press releases, but I guess it took a while for the implications to sink in.
Cyrus Mewawalla, an analyst at Westhall Capital, believes VoIP, when backed by Microsoft, will have a more devastating effect on mobile operators than it did on the fixed-line operators, which saw their voice revenues slashed after the introduction of VoIP services such as Skype.
“Internet voice does not even have to take market share to force traditional operators to cut their prices. The mere thought of free voice is enough to make customers push for price cuts,” said Mewawalla, predicting a bloodbath for mobile operator stocks.
More by following the link, but the initial effect may be limited by Office Communicator’s target business audience.
Update 2/20: Mark Odell and Kate Mackenzie from the Financial Times have more in Internet telephony set to go mobile:
“Internet voice is going mobile,” said Jorma Ollila, Nokia chief executive, on Monday as the world’s biggest maker of mobile handsets unveiled its first mass- market model capable of supporting voice-over-internet protocol. VoIP is the emerging technology that offers cheap calls to users by routing them over the internet, instead of traditional phone networks.
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About a dozen large mobile operators are “actively” looking at offering VoIP-based services, according to one senior industry figure.
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Microsoft is increasingly moving into mobile software and its Windows Mobile operating system already supports VoIP.The latest version of software developed by Symbian, 48 per cent owned by Nokia and currently the biggest supplier of operating systems to high-end mobiles, will do the same.
As a stand-alone mobile operator, Vodafone is seen as being more exposed to the inevitable pricing pressure than some rivals.
However, the UK-based operator accepts it is inevitable. “We have to morph from where we are now,” said Arun Sarin, chief executive of Vodafone. “That [VoIP] is clearly a world around the corner . . . it is two to three years away.”
The 3GSM World Congress, billed as the world’s “premier mobile event,” is kicking off tomorrow in Barcelona and the press releases are flying. For Microsoft, phones from Windows Mobile partners, back-end messaging software, and software for service providers are what’s hot:
Microsoft Announces Global Partner Support for its Mobile Messaging Solutions
Feb. 13, 2006 — Today at 3GSM World Congress 2006, Microsoft Corp. and its mobile operator and device-maker partners announced a broad range of services and Windows Mobile®-based devices for business customers to cost-effectively deploy mobile messaging solutions. Leveraging the integration between Direct Push technology in Microsoft Windows Mobile 5.0 and Microsoft® Exchange Server 2003 Service Pack 2 (SP2), businesses can mobilize their employees on a unified infrastructure without the requirement to pay for additional and costly e-mail servers. This same technology is now available for Microsoft Windows® Small Business Server and is also offered as a hosted service by a number of mobile operators around the world.
Note the inclusion of Small Business Server. That’s not a real surprise since it includes Exchange, but the service stream is different.
Cingular Wireless, Orange, T-Mobile and Vodafone today announced free upgrades to the Messaging and Security Feature Pack (MSFP) for all their Windows Mobile 5.0 customers, enabling Direct Push functionality and providing enhanced device management and security for messaging applications. Palm Inc. and i-Mate also reaffirmed their commitment to free MSFP upgrades. In addition, new Windows Mobile-based devices were unveiled today, all of which will ship with Direct Push technology: the HP iPAQ hw6900 Mobile Messenger, the Gigabyte Communications g-Smart (offered by Chunghwa Telecom Co. Ltd. in Taiwan), the ASUS P305 3G-enabled smartphone, and the Fujitsu Siemens FS Pocket Loox. In addition, HTC Corp. has unveiled a new product portfolio of Windows Mobile-based devices that are Direct Push-enabled and will be made available globally to T-Mobile and other operators beginning in the second quarter of this year.
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Direct Push technology added to Windows Mobile 5.0 gives customers faster access to all of their Microsoft Office Outlook® information; just like prior versions of Windows Mobile, it communicates directly with Microsoft Exchange Server and Windows Small Business Server without the need for additional and costly e-mail servers and middleware. When combined with a library of over 18,000 specialty applications, Windows Mobile phones — now offered by 47 device-makers and 100 mobile operators in 55 countries — are the premier choice for business customers.
There is a “hardware” press release touting the Texas Instruments hardware platform for Windows Mobile phones, but the back-end seems to get most of the ink with a press release for Vodafone that tells their Windows Mobile push email story, and another for T-Mobile describing how they will also be using the Microsoft Solution for Hosted Messaging and Collaboration to provided hosted email packages for small and medium businesses. Hosting will be provided by IS Interned Services who will jointly market it with T-Mobile.
Finally, for service provisioning there’s Microsoft Builds Momentum in Service Delivery Arena
Microsoft Corp. today announced that its service delivery solution, Microsoft® Connected Services Framework, has been adopted by more than a dozen of the world’s leading communications companies, including Bell Canada, BT Retail and Celcom Malaysia. In addition, France Telecom is currently trialing this solution. Introduced in February 2005, Connected Services Framework is a software product that allows operators to aggregate, provision and manage converged communications services for their subscribers, regardless of network or device.
The Connected Services Framework is a cross industry Microsoft offering for a variety of network operators. We last it mentioned here in relation to the broadcast industry.
