Since it was released last week the Skype app has become the most popular download on the Apple iTunes app store - with more than a million downloads so far, and counting, but some mobile carriers have blocked the VoiP app on their 3G networks; with some going as far as even blocking usage via Wi-Fi.
Three networks outside of the UK have banned their customers from using the popular Skype app on their networks. The restricted networks are Rogers in Canada, AT&T in the US and T-mobile in Germany, and in the case of the latter it has even prohibited usage of the service from any of the hotspots on its extensive Wi-Fi network. 
Rather bizarrely the German carrier claims that loss of revenue played no part in the decision, rather, T-mobile Germany insist that it is "because the high level of traffic would hinder our network performance, and because if the Skype program didn’t work properly, customers would make us responsible for it."
Hmm, sounds pretty tenuous to us. If it didn’t work properly? Well, it seems to work just fine for the million or so people that have already downloaded it from the app store and certainly doesn’t seem to be causing any problems that would warrant network liability.
Skype’s general legal counsel Robert Miller said the decision is "an April’s Fool joke at the expense of Skype users in Germany".
This treatment isn’t restricted just to the iPhone version of the app though; T-mobile Germany (along with every other German operator) have been blocking VoiP apps for a long time now, so no joy for Blackberry users either.
Whilst the other operators, namely Rogers and AT&T haven’t gone as far as T-mobile, they have still restricted use of the app to Wi-Fi only, a decision that has resulted in much displeasure from their customers and close scrutiny of the legality of such a decision from Free Press.
With no EU imperative for German carriers to block VoiP traffic and no reasonable technological fear from Skype or other VoiP apps bringing their networks down we imagine that the first German carrier to remove this stipulation will pick up a whole lot of new customers in the future.
For now there’s no such luck for these customers and what’s more worrying is that in the US AT&T still holds exclusivity rights to the iPhone and so do T-mobile in Germany, so it’s not as if unhappy customers can shop around for more willing network carriers.
******UPDATE******
We were contacted by someone apparently from Rogers in Canada – They said that Rogers has no intention of blocking the app when it’s available in their region.