Embracing telephony change
Great move on the part of 3 — it’s making Skype a part of their mobile service. Skype offers free calls over the Internet, possible due to the growth of broadband, and has widely been perceived to be the death of traditional telephony companies.
3 could have set themselves against the Internet telephony movement. They could have sought to crush Skype and their ilk. They could have done much the same as the traditional music industry did when it saw the on-coming digital revolution, also powered by broadband. But instead 3 chose to roll with the punch and are embracing the inevitable market shift.
The music companies came away from their scrap more damaged than they could have been by now. I have no idea how 3 will fare, but they certainly deserve to do well from this.
