I mentioned the other day that the KPN explicitly forbids the use of its flat-fee Surf & Mail mobile Internet package for VoIP services in its fair use policy.
Nevertheless, I’ve put it to the test and can reveal that they’ve currently taken no technical measures to stop you from using VoIP. It remains to be seen how long I can continue to use their 3G UMTS data network to conduct my voice calls, but until they ask me to stop, I’m going to arrogantly flout their terms and conditions.
What’s the advantage of doing this?
Well, calls are much cheaper this way. Using my Internet provider, XS4ALL, I can make calls from my mobile phone against XS4ALL’s VoIP tariff. I then pay KPN’s flat-fee €9.95 per month for Surf & Mail, plus whatever XS4ALL charges for the VoIP call. That effectively means I can use my mobile phone anywhere in the Netherlands to call any number within the EU or the US for next to nothing, just one or two cents a minute.
It gets better, though. By requesting a second (free) VoIP phone number from XS4ALL, I can now get free calls from our home phone to my mobile and vice versa, because XS4ALL charges nothing for calls between its subscribers, which also includes one subscriber’s calls to himself using multiple phone numbers.
Normal calls to mobile phones, however, are still around 15 cents per minute, whether or not I use my KPN Mobiel subscription. In fact, they’re still slightly cheaper if I use my standard voice subscription, so VoIP doesn’t help here. The same applies, obviously, if I need to check my standard voicemail or call KPN’s customer service.
The only disadvantage (apart from the fact that I’m breaking the rules laid down by the supplier of my data network, the KPN), is that I have to maintain an open data connection to be able to receive VoIP calls on my mobile phone. That’s not good for the battery, but it’s a small inconvenience compared to the benefits.
Obviously, as VoIP grows in popularity and more mobile phones become capable of conducting VoIP calls (either over GPRS, UMTS or WiFi), more people are going to see the advantages and the KPN is going to have to take active steps to stop people from using its data network to conduct voice calls.
Until then, however, I don’t feel obligated to comply with a clearly anti-competitive clause in the fair use policy.