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.