With a burgeoning number of applications that allow circumvention of conventional mobile call rates, SA's operators are taking measures to "make users' lives difficult" when using voice over Internet Protocol (VOIP) apps on their cellphones.
This is according to industry experts, who say mobile operators are less accepting of the increasing emergence of mobile apps like - among many others - Skype, Google Voice, Viber and FaceTime.
According to Arthur Goldstuck, MD of World Wide Worx, some mobile operators have been impairing users' mobile VOIP experiences by shaping data traffic, and curbing the apps' advantages by charging premium data rates "all along".
"The operators are being very vague about this, but they are in the early stages of rolling out premium rates for VOIP use, and it is possible for them to shape the traffic. For the networks, [mobile VOIP] is an inefficient use of the data layer."
This is corroborated by numerous consumer complaints via online forums that quality and duration of their connection when using VOIP apps, notably Skype, is shaky at best. Overall, users have reported increasing latency issues. There are also complaints of users' data counters speeding up and inflated data costs.
Losing out
Vox Telecom CEO Jacques du Toit says mobile operators are trying to discourage use of mobile VOIP apps "for their own personal gain".
"The mobile operators will never allow you to run VOIP over GSM. If you think about it, they are charging you R1.40 a minute, while data has gone down to around 20c per MB."
He says operators are doing "everything in their power" to put a stop to VOIP app usage. "[They are asking themselves]: 'How can we tell when a mobile phone with our SIM in is starting to carry voice, and how are we going to penalise the user by prioritising traffic and making the experience bad?' Or they want to introduce a tariff plan that, when they pick up voice, they are going to charge you more for data used."
Ultimately, says Du Toit, operators are saying they refuse to replace voice calls costing around R1.20, with data calls that cost in the region of 30c per MB.
SA's mobile operators were, on the whole, less than forthcoming on the issue, with Vodacom, MTN, Cell C and 8ta not providing comment by the time of publication. Cell C has indicated it will respond with comment shortly.
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