It’s not the Nazi-Soviet Pact of 1939. It’s not even the NFL merging with the AFL, in 1970. But the deal between Skype and Verizon Wireless (VZ), traditional adversaries whose growth has followed separate but parallel tracks since Skype was founded seven years ago, marks a turning point for the mobile and wireless industry – a before-and-after moment that at a stroke renders obsolete the conventional minutes-based business model of incumbent carriers not only in the U.S., but around the world.
 |
| The crepes are extra. |
“We’re seeing a real change in the attitude of operators around the world,” in regard to allowing (or, in this case, supporting) VoIP services on their networks, Skype CEO Josh Silverman said at the press conference in Barcelona, at Mobile World Congress. Skype’s partnerships with wireless carriers like 3, in the U.K., “have demonstrated that they make more money when they work with Skype.”
Russ Shaw, the general manager of Skype's mobile business unit, elaborated in an interview with VON: “It’s a significant milestone, because up until today many carriers would look at us and say, ‘We won’t work with Skype.’ They see us as a potential threat. But with Verizon and ourselves coming up with this agreement to work together, now many more carriers are going to have to pause and rethink their strategy.”
Indeed, what happens next is almost certainly an elaborate mating dance as other major carriers queue up to make partnerships with other VoIP providers, not only Skype, but the dozens of startups that have sprouted over the last few years.
Cross-Border Pacts Proliferate
While the Verizon-Skype alliance marks the first time a major U.S. incumbent has chosen to partner with a VoIP provider, it is hardly the first of such cross-border pacts.
“Skype on Verizon is another manifestation of a growing shift, in which this kind of cooperation between incumbents and providers will continue to grow,” said Polycom CTO and co-founder Jeffrey Rodman, in an e-mail.
Two years ago, in one of the first major acquisitions of a VoIP startup by an established carrier, BT Group (BT) acquired VoIP provider Ribbit. And last month Telefonica (TEF), a major Euro telco, finalized its purchase of U.S. VoIP startup Jajah.
Earlier this month, Comcast Corp. (CMCSA), the nation’s No. 1 cable provider, agreed to purchase privately held VoIP provider New Global Telecom Inc.. That purchase will mark the first major acquisition of a VoIP provider by a top-tier cableco. Based in Golden, Colo., NGT had previously announced a series of private-label deals, under which it supplies branded VoIP services to operators like American Broadband Inc.
