Following on from Pat’s post here about Vodafone and T-Mobile blocking VoIP services in the UK, has anyone here found they cannot make VoIP calls with their mobile broadband options or via their operator branded N95s and so forth? Some people tell me that on Vodafone 3g broadband Skype does not work. Wondering can people list what does not work on Vodafone’s broadband and regular mobile service. I believe that Skype works on o2’s 3g broadband package?
Damien Mulley
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o2 and Vodafone aren’t the only operators out there you know… Ok, Meteor aren’t an option when it comes to 3G but don’t forget 3. Skype works fine on 3’s mobile broadband package and they also have phones (the “X-Series”) coming at the end of the month which will also have built-in Skype support (as well as Slingbox support and some other nice features).
Damien,
I use voip apps on my Vodafone a/c all the time. One possible diff is that my phone was bought unlocked from Expansys not from Vodafone.
Tom,
Which apps, is Skype one of them?
Damien
Truphone (mostly) and Fring (which includes Skype).
[…] Also, Damien is wondering if Irish mobile operators block VoIP. Well, speaking for my current employers (mobile phone network ‘3′), no. Despite Vodafone apparently not liking Skype, ICQ, Windows Messenger, and more, 3 are bringing out phones (their ‘X-Series’ range) that have Skype and Slingbox capabilities built in – and every phone available from 3 stores now comes with a Windows Live Messenger installer – and it’s free to use. I’m not bothering with the X-Series phones myself, but I AM looking forward to getting my new Sony Ericsson K800i that this boards.ie thread convinced me to go for. […]
I think a person would have to be nuts to use Skype on a bandwidth-capped phone. It’s not real VoIP. It’s a proprietary software black box which steals additional bandwidth behind your back to route other people’s calls.
Get a SIP client for your phone and use (eg) Blueface instead. €25 per month gets us unlimited landline calls to Ireland, the US and the UK. Your cell phone can have (eg) an 021 number so you can be nice to your callers too. And you won’t suddenly discover that you’re being billed by the MB by Voda because Skype ripped off your bandwidth without telling you.
3 Ireland don’t block VOIP. There is traffic “identification” but thats about it.
And as Niall O K says, 3 are bringing out X-Series coming soon, they are not going to do something silly like block IP traffic.
I agree 100% with Messr. Handelaar – Skype is blackbox VOIP. Dump it and get Gizmo. Works 100% on Windows, Mac, and Nokia S60 phones.
http://www.runningwithbulls.com/blog/2007/05/18/gizmo-released-for-s60-devices/
I would also suggest, like John, looking at Blueface, but also SIPPhone (the makers of Gizmo).
I use Gizmo on my mobile (with WiFi), and on my laptop. Works wonderfully.
I also agree with John Handelaar, we cannot say Voip==Skype.
I have been fighting with Three.ie, the company that provide me with 3G internet (I won’t say broadband) in Ireland, since weeks ago because no one of my 4 Voip phones works when I use the internet. But they work when I am in other network.
I called many many times to the customer support asking for the list of ports that they block and I got no answer, just a list of supported applications (my Linux is not on the list of supported OS, by the way) for the accelerator.
Anyway, I was going to write here quite big that three.ie (3) block Voip (but not skype), but after read to Bernard talking so confident, I decided to open ‘again’ my Voip Phone. Now it works.
Maybe they changed their policy or just stopped blocking my communications. But at least today I won’t have to call with the expensive Skype just because they block my other cheap accounts.
I started using 3G with Three.ie (3) the 14th of July 2007.
Today (10th August) is the first day my Voip phone works on Three.ie network.
Thanks to all of you. :o)
Well Fring did work on Three Ireland but it would seem no longer as a major port blocking exercise has taken place. Nor do SIP based VOIP services such as Truphone or Gizmo work any longer.
While there is a crippled Skype client with X-Series the promise was exciting unfortunately the reality is rather less so. The Three Skype client only works in areas covered by 3G though Skype through Fring got along quite happily with GPRS, it has no text facility and oddly doesn’t support usernames with underscores.
For more see
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055147970
and
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055142078
Actually I can confirm that Eircom do in fact blovk VOIP traffic.
To cut a long story short, a company I worked with changed over to VOIP and had problems where the number kept could not be called and a lot more.
After tracing the packets and threating eircom with disclosure and that “we will go to comreg” , the problem magicially fixed itself.
I do realise that this is slightly off topic but it is relevent.
I used VOIP with Eircom with no issues for the last 2 years – residential account. Don’t know if they discriminate for business.
As for 3 Ireland with X-Series Gold now I am happy to report that both Fring and classic SIP protocols work fine.
I recently bought the 19.99 euro per month O2 broadband service for my sister in Co. Mayo. I tried it out in Cork and Skype to skype connections seemed to be blocked, but Skype out worked fine.
Slightly off topic but I’m using a Huawei E220 for 3G access on my PC with Vodafone Ireland and can’t seem to set up a temporary FTP server on port 21, port 80 or port 8080.
Does anyone know if Vodafone.ie leaves any ports open for a temporary inbound connection?
I’ve tried port scanning tools and it tells me everything inbound is closed, but I’m finding that (almost) hard to believe.
Sean.
Well vodafone definitely block VoIP’s in Ireland and UK. I called their tech support/customer service just there and the service agent didn’t seem to give a shit when I told him I would change network over this issue. Just lookin around for the best network now, O2 look better.
http://mobile.engadget.com/2007/05/02/vodafone-being-sued-over-voip-blocking/
..I was trying to use Skype with the Nimbuzz app for the Nokia 5230 by the way. No point now
We signed up to a year contract with Vodafone here in Dublin and the salesperson in the Vodafone store assured us that if we were gonna be using skype we better opt for the ‘unlimited’ 20 euro a month deal. So we signed up for that and here we are after 3 months still trying to make one Skype call successfully. Couldn’t unbderstand what it could be until now, after googling the topic, I see that Vodafone are targeting Skype. We are definitely getting out of this contract! Besides the Skype issue, the speed is lousy.
No kind of VoIP runs on any standard Vodafone 3G, nobody says nothing when you buy the modem or register, everything is deeply hidden somewhere on the website. Vodafone employs deep packet inspection to detect VoIP, that’s why it takes 4-5 seconds before throttling. I work not in Vodafone but in the other company who created the packet inspection solution.