What an amazing week of announcements in the Skyposphere. First there is IPdrum providing another means to to use Skype to bypass mobile company international and roaming charges. Then DittyBot comes along to enable iPod users to stream songs onto their mobile handsets using Skype. Stepping back from the wow factor what are the telco pricing aspects of DittyBot. Here we need to assume that the mobile user is also paying for the Skype to mobile telco charge. If you are in a country with receiving party pays and a mobile plan with a huge bucket of minutes or free at certain times of day this will be a fun option. If you are in a country with calling party pays the Skype to mobile charges will still be high due to the mobile termination rates. So you need a way to bypass those charges with wifi or even Ipdrum. The issue that this reinforces is the tension between the major manufacturers and the mobile service providers. If they don't build these capabilities into their handsets they will be bypassed. If they do build them in they will face opposition from the service providers whol want to operate the tollgate. It is the same tension we saw played out earlier this week between Yahoo, SBC and BT. Any second thoughts Nokia?

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