Skype: Operators' Tiered Services will Replace Our 3G Surcharge Plans

    

Two days ago I was wondering why AT&T does not implement a traffic management solution to cope with its bandwidth demand-supply challenge (see "AT&T to Apple: "Please Throttle iPhone Traffic" - here). One of the suggestions I made was about implementing tiered services like Telcomsel (here) and Elisa (here) did recently.

Now we get some guidance from Skype that this may be the case. Just 6 weeks ago Skype said that "We Will Charge 3G Calls to Ensure QoS Stays High" (here) and now they decided to cancel the plan. In conjunction with the announcement of a new software version of Skype for iPhone, Skype’s blogger-in-chief, Peter Parkes says:

"At Skype, we believe that better call quality and better availability (which is achieved with an app capable of multitasking and/or making calls over 3G) lead to increased call frequency and longer calls. We also believe that the mobile world is in a period of significant change, for example, with some operators starting to move to tiered pricing models.
  
In light of that, we no longer have plans to charge a supplement to make calls over 3G. We’re delighted to make it easier for you to talk for even longer and do even more together using Skype."

See "iPhone update: now supports multitasking, no additional charges for calling over 3G" - here.

So the charging burden goes from the OTT application provider to the carrier. Can we conclude that:

1. AT&T will offer tiered services, including a plan that will ensure QoS for Skype traffic? (see "DPI Deployments (10): AT&T Uses Openet for iPad Monetization" - here)
    
2. Does AT&T think that this plan complies with Net Neutrality guidelines? (I believe it does, as long as they transparent to the subscribers about the plan they are purchasing, and will treat all other VoIP traffic equally)  

And how AT&T will share the extra revenues collected from the new tier between itself and Skype? Of course, Skype maybe talking about operators in other countries ...

In any case, these are good news for DPI and policy management vendors.