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The arrival of VoIP as a method of transmitting voice over cellular networks has to be addressed by regulators and antitrust authorities sooner or later and the European Commission is gearing up to decide on its rules.

According to reports in the International Herald Tribune, the Commission just completed an investigation of mobile VoIP prior to discussing regulation. Of course, VoIP is actually far more wasteful of network resources than circuit switched voice - most VoIP systems require 64Kbps, compared to 12Kbps for voice on 3G systems, so the former could result in 5-10 times the strain on the network.

IP networks like LTE will be more efficient, but it is the network pricing that is causing problems. Cellular operators offer mobile web with their best effort on data rates, which can be as high as 3.6Mbps, with data limits between 1Gb and 15Gb a month at prices as low as £10-£15 a month. If a customer chooses to send voice over that data network using a program like Skype, it would cost nothing extra for each call plus the user talk all month to anywhere in the world without exceeding the data limit, and bypass roaming charges while travelling.

The natural solution is to block VoIP, as some operators like Clearwire have done, and this is the main issue being examined by the EC, and whether operators should be allowed to ban particular types of data. The EC will send out questionnaires to carriers, VoIP rivals and major customers to form a picture of the tools and techniques being used for filtering and blocking VoIP traffic.

Earlier this year 3 UK began to offer Skype over its network as part of its X Series of services, and is now using that throughout its European operations, and this has led to more flat rate data services from 3 competitors - but so far it has not led to rival VoIP services.

In the US the operators have used tight control of their intellectual property to prevent rivals appearing who offer VoIP over their services, claiming patent breaches, and this may be the only way that European cellular operators can legally stop services emerging here. The patents in question - how to interconnect to their specific network - were largely obvious.

T-Mobile UK and mobile VoIP player Truphone reached for lawyers this summer over this same issue with T-Mobile refusing to agree interconnect fees for Truphone customers, because it did not have its own network to support. Other deals have emerged in Europe where VoIP services work hand in hand with cellular operators, whereas others block traffic.

It is understood that several cellular operators have clauses in their customer contracts which allow them to block VoIP services over 3G, or to exclude VoIP traffic from monthly data bundles. These would have to be dropped I the European Commission finds that it is anti-competitive, which is what is likely to happen here.

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