Interesting news coming from the UK via the Guardian:

Skype, the provider of free phone calls over the internet, yesterday clinched an important deal with mobile phone operator 3 which will see its service offered across the company’s five networks, including in Britain, later this year.

The deal, the first of its kind, represents a significant threat to operators such as Vodafone who are trying to protect revenues from traditional networks while moving customers onto new 3G networks.

The news does not come as a surprise, as the technology to use the data connections on mobile phones for VoIP has long been availble, although for obvious reasons none of the mobile operators have been too eager to open up their network and risk cannibalizing their core revenue stream.

Mobile operator 3 does not have to worry about any existing business, as they are a new 3g player struggling to gain market share. Since they had nothing to lose, they have opened up the pandora’s box that the industry was trying to avoid. Now it is only a matter of time until other operators start offering VoIP to remain competitive…