Challenger Mobile has observed a consistent and marked change in attitudes toward Mobile VoIP service deployments throughout the mobile ecosystem. Both in the company's ongoing dialog with operators and service providers, and in mVoIP deployment announcements by major providers, Challenger sees the industry adopting a much more receptive stance toward Mobile VoIP service offerings since the third quarter of 2007.

Last October, Hutchison 3 (branded as 3) and Skype announced a partnership in which Skype users could sign-up for 3G mobile service on 3's network and subsequently place free Skype Mobile VoIP calls. Since that time, several major operators have announced Internet telephony service plans and strategies, including Vodafone in Germany, Samsung in Korea, FarEasTone in Taiwan and others. Others have moved more aggressively with full production service deployments, such as Singtel's Mio Mobile service in Singapore and Star Hub's Pfingo Talk. What's more, other carriers such as Sprint and DoCoMo have announced mobile VoIP-based push-to-talk applications, setting the stage for future pure-play mVoIP services.

Challenger's white-label Mobile VoIP platform is a turnkey approach for operators or service providers seeking to enter new geographies in pursuit of new revenues and market share. The platform, which allows subscribers to place calls from their mobile phones over the Internet using WiFi, GPRS or 3G connections, minimizes the barriers to entry associated with traditional telephony services, giving aggressive operators a highly effective strategic weapon. Conversely, offering mVoIP services via Challenger's platform can thwart potential call volume losses as a result of subscribers placing long distance or international calls using PC-based VoIP services like Skype, or traditional VoIP networks.