UMA Is Not Dead Yet?

What? G2 is FCC certified with UMA? Dire predictions about death of UMA were wrong?

I'll be glad to eat my hat if that is the case. Still pondering about nuances of making profit on UMA, other than $10/mo surcharge on the plan plus feature appeal, stacked against the overhead of VOIP infrastructure and increased tension between the wireless carrier and Internet service providers.

Conspiracy Theory: No VOIP For Mobile Devices

Just like I was saying, it appears there's a conspiracy preventing you from using your mobile device to carry VOIP traffic.

Skype has just announced their mobile application, and guess what, unlike regular Skype, you can not make VOIP calls on it.

Skype-to-anything-else rates are not that great. The only reason to use Skype (for me) is to utilize free VOIP. The Skype Mobile App is not providing that ability.

Moreover, not only they don't have VOIP, they both a) consume airtime minutes *and* b) charge you the Skype call rates.

Thanks, but no thanks.

Seems that we're screwed. The only way VOIP on mobile is happening is Open Source, and even then buckle up for mobile traffic capping.

Conspiracy Theory: There Will Be No Google Talk for Android

Not that it's non-obvious, just didn't stop to think about it until now...

Fact #1: mobile carriers charge customers for airtime.
Fact #2: Google Talk uses data channel to transfer voice.

Corollary: Google Talk jeopardizes carrier's business model, and puts a strain on their data channel capacity. This can't make carriers happy.

Corollary 2: There will be no Google Talk for Android.

So if you're developing your own VOIP application, now is a time to rejoice and have a second breath - the first to get to the market share hits the jackpot.

UPDATE: See the UMA conspiracy theory.