Bouygues Telecom Deploys GENBAND's fring OTT Service

GENBAND, that acquired recently the VoIP service fring (estimated price is $40-50M) announced that "French operator Bouygues Telecom has selected the fring Over the Top (OTT) service to provide Bouygues customers with free phone calls and SMS on Wi-Fi while abroad"

Benoît Torloting [pictured], Head of digital & B&YOU at Bouygues Telecom said: “Leveraging the fring OTT solution, we eliminate cellular network roaming charges and deliver our commitment to quality-cost competitive advantage even when our customers are travelling worldwide.”

See "fring Eliminates Roaming Costs for French Mobile Users" - here.

[Infonetics] 1B OTT mVoIP Subscribers (Skype- 40%); ARPU Down to $7.13 Annually

Last year Infonetics estimated that the annual ARPU for mobile VoIP user was $13 [here]. 2012, saw a huge decrease.

A new report by Infonetics Research Principle Analysts Diane Myers [pictured] and Stéphane Téral, finds that "While Skype dominates the over-the-top mobile VoIP space, the market is seeing other applications such as Fring, KakaoTalk, Line, Nimbuzz, WeChat and Viber gain in strength. But the fact remains that most OTT mVoIP providers are making very little money per user. In 2012, the average revenue per user was a meager US$7.13 annually. Since this alone is an unsustainable business model, most providers are turning to advertising, third-party apps and wholesale arrangements with traditional operators”

"The number of global OTT mobile VoIP subscribers shot up more than 550% in 2012, to over 640 million, and is expected to approach the 1 billion mark in 2013. Microsoft/Skype had roughly 40% of all active users of OTT mobile VoIP services in 2012"

"Infonetics projects the number of VoLTE subscribers to grow at a 145% compound annual growth rate from 2012 to 2017 Combined, over-the-top mobile VoIP and VoLTE services are expected to become a $16 billion business by 2017"

See "Infonetics Research raises VoLTE forecast; Over-the-top mobile VoIP subscribers nearing 1 billion mark" - here.

[Infonetics]: Global OTT mVoIP Subscribers more than Doubled in 2011

A new report by Stéphane Téral, principal analyst for mobile infrastructure and carrier economics and Diane Myers (pictured), principal analyst for VoIP and IMS, Infonetics Research concludes that:

"The number of global OTT mobile VoIP subscribers more than doubled from 2010 to 2011, to 98 million, with about 40% of the subscribers based in EMEA (Europe, the Middle East and Africa)"

" .. In the crowded OTT mobile VoIP market, Microsoft/Skype  still dominates [see "Skype Grew by 48% in 2011 - Generating 25% of all International Minutes" - here] .. independent OTT mVoIP providers like Google Voice, Fring [here], Line2, Nimbuzz, Talkonaut, ThruTu, and Truphone are working to differentiate from Skype and operator-driven OTT services such as T-Mobile’s Bobsled and Telefónica’s TU Me by making their service easier to use, lowering prices, integrating social networking, and adding video features".

Google Voice

"Still, with OTT mVoIP subscribers paying an average of only $14 per year [here], sustaining an OTT mobile VoIP service is extremely challenging, and most providers face daunting possibilities: go out of business or sell to a larger organization; or find a way to drive revenue beyond cheap calling"

Related post - "[NSN]: Chatty Android Phones should Move on to Network Controlled Fast Dormancy" - here.

See "Voice over LTE gaining momentum; 300k VoLTE subscribers by year's end" - here.

Fring vs. Skype: OTT vs. OOTT

  

So far we have seen the fight between carriers/ISPs and Over-The-Top (OTT) service providers (a.k.a "Net Neutrality") - now we go one level up - OTT vs. application providers using their APIs (Over-Over-The-Top).

The current fight is between Fring And Skype.

Fring (video below) is "a free mobile application that lets users communicate with friends on popular networks over their mobile phone's internet connection. Fring users make free mobile calls .. on fring & other internet services like Skype®, MSN Messenger®, GoogleTalk™, AIM®, ICQ® , Facebook® & Twitter, all through one central, integrated phone book. See the full feature list here."

Now, Fring says (in its blog post "Skype Cowardly Blocks fring" - here) that "Now that fring expanded capacity to support the huge demand for video calling for all users, Skype has blocked us from doing so. They are afraid of open mobile communication. Cowards."

Skype sees this differently.

Robert Miller, Skype's General Counsel says in Skype's Blog ("Fring’s mis-use of Skype software was damaging to our brand and reputation" - here) - ".. over time, Fring’s mis-use of our software was increasingly damaging our brand and reputation with our customers. .. there is no truth to Fring’s claims that Skype has blocked it. Fring made the decision to remove Skype functionality on its own").

No diplomacy here ... 

I wonder how Skype will react if a carrier would say something like - bad quality of Skype calls damages our brand - so we decided to block them.

Related posts:

• "Skype to EU Carriers: "The Network is not Yours" - here 
• "Skype: We Will Charge 3G Calls to Ensure QoS Stays High (Net Neutrality?)" - here