TeliaSonera backtracks on mobile VoIP charging strategy

Swedish telecoms heavyweight TeliaSonera revealed yesterday that it has decided against imposing additional charges for the use of third-party voice-over-internet protocol (VoIP) calling services by its mobile subscribers group-wide, following a pilot introduction of the scheme at Spanish subsidiary Yoigo. As reported by the Wall Street Journal, the Stockholm-based telco said it had decided not to charge specific fees for IP telephony services over its mobile networks, but would instead increase data charges across the board ‘to meet growing demand for data communications.’ Yoigo users have the option of paying EUR6 (USD7.5) per month for 100MB of VoIP traffic, allowing between five and ten hours of call time. TeliaSonera Sweden had been amongst the group’s divisions lined up to adopt the mobile VoIP pricing framework next, before the apparent strategy u-turn was revealed.