T-Mobile UK Facing $895 Million Lawsuit

Published on: 2nd March 2009

A long running court case is to proceed after solicitors filed a case with the UK's High Court against T-Mobile which could potentially cost the network operator £625 million (US$895 million). The lawsuit is being filed by now-bankrupt SIM care reseller, VIP Communications.

The firm operated so called GSM Gateways which route calls from desk-phones to mobile calls via an array of SIM cards in a server. As calls to mobiles are cheaper from another mobile than from a landline, the benefit to the user is lower phone bills. However, network operators tend to dislike GSM Gateways as they have the potential to cause congestion on the local base station.

The trade magazine, Mobile News reported that the damages claim was lodged by solicitors Taylor Wessing with the High Court on February 11th, the day after the Court of Appeal ruled in favour of Ofcom in its case against fellow GSM Gateway operator Floe Telecom.

T-Mobile declined to comment pending the arrival of the legal papers.

GSM Gateways have caused sufficient problems for network operators that some companies have developed tools to detect their presence in a network. Sevis Systems launched such a product in 2006 which it said was designed to target what it called SIM Box Fraud - mainly aimed at users who try to bypass the local landline operator's monopoly on international traffic. The GSM Association also published a white paper in 2003 which claimed that the use of GSM Gateways for traffic reselling "could constitute a fraud."

On the web: Mobile News - Taylor Wessing

 

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