How about cheap VoIP calls on cell phones? You would love it. But wireless carriers do not like it because they earn a very good amount on voice and data plans. So, cellular providers around the world want to restrict Skype for iPhone and other such Internet phone services.

In the U.S., AT&T users can use Skype for iPhone calls only with Wi-Fi connections. So they cannot use the VoIP app over AT&T’s 3G or EDGE data networks.

In Germany, users cannot use VoIP software for one and a half years if they are using Deutsche Telekom AG services. In Canada, iPhone users will not be able to download Skype because of a “vague restrictions” in technology licenses. According to a TheStar report:

“Some have speculated that the holdup is due to resistance from Canada’s wireless carriers, which rely heavily on revenue from conventional voice calling.”

Wireless carriers want to save their turf because cellular voice plans make big money for them. These carriers will not let Skype and other low-cost VoIP upstarts steal their show. But ISPs offering home Internet access, which also include Comcast, AT&T, and Verizon, are not permitted to restrict net phone services such as Skype and Vonage even though these VoIP service providers take on the ISPs’ home phone plans.

The restriction by the wireless carriers violates Net neutrality principles. As per Network World, the tenets of Net neutrality which was outlined by the Federal Communications Commission in 2005, takes side with the consumer:

“These principles state that networks must allow users to access any lawful Internet content of their choice, to run any legal Web applications of their choice, and to connect to the network using any device that does not harm the network. Additionally, the principles state that consumers are ‘entitled to competition among network providers, application and service providers and content providers.’ “

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