Nokia's recent announcement of putting Skype in its flagship N97 has reportedly irked some network operators, and may lead to the Finns being forced to strip the service out.
According to Mobile Today, O2 and Orange are understood to be very angry at Nokia trying to 'freeze them out' by allowing users to make calls over the mobile internet, thus circumventing the operators' voice price plans and ultimately costing them money.
Mobile Today is reporting an 'unnamed operator source' as saying: "This is another example of them trying to build an ecosystem that is all about Nokia and reduces the operator to a dumb pipe.
Dumb pipe
"Some people like 3 may be in a position where it could make sense to accept that. But if you spend upwards of £40m per year building your brand, you don't want to be just a dumb pipe do you?
"Nokia have tried several ways to own the customer over the years and operators have had to say no."
The arguments may even involve Nokia making an embarrassing climbdown over the Skype service, as it looks to maintain operator relations.
3 has championed the Skype model on its recent models (the Skypephone 1 and 2 and the INQ1 Facebook phone) but other networks are less willing to work with the service.
Via Mobile Today
