NEW YORK—Cingular Wireless L.L.C. is not completely opposed to its customers running Voice over Internet Protocol services over its high-speed UMTS/HSDPA wireless data network. However, the carrier would like to work out the billing and operational kinks before fully supporting such activities.
The guarded comments were made by Cingular’s Chief Technology Officer Kristin Rinne during a keynote session at the Yankee Group’s Wireless Leadership Decision Summit in New York.
Rinne responded to a question from Yankee Group Executive Vice President of Wireless Mobile Strategies Keith Mallinson, who said he recently made an international phone call using Skype’s VoIP service from his personal computer over Cingular’s UMTS/HSDPA network.
Rinne noted that the carrier doesn’t have a problem with customers using such technology on its network, but that it would be more comfortable with the technology if it could guarantee quality and institute a way to bill for such services—thereby allowing Cingular to recoup the costs of supporting such services.
Carriers have been reluctant to approve unauthorized VoIP services on their wireless data networks as such applications are seen as bandwidth intensive as well as a possible lower-cost competitor to their traditional circuit-switched voice services.
Separately, Rinne mentioned that the carrier was looking to begin deploying IMS technology on its network by the end of the year with plans for broader deployment by the end of the decade. The IMS work would be accomplished in conjunction with Cingular’s parent companies AT&T Inc. and BellSouth Corp., which will unite following AT&T’s pending acquisition of BellSouth.
