Telefonica launches Tu Me for iPhone with free VoIP calling and messaging
It's not often you see a wireless carrier launch an app that directly competes with its core services, but that seems to be just what the Madrid-based Telefónica is doing with Tu Me, a new integrated communications app for the iPhone.
Context & Ripple Effects
iPhone VoIP services had already moved from a novelty toward a competitive communications layer: Fring's Wi-Fi calling with Skype support and Vonage's free calls to Facebook friends put calling outside a carrier's conventional voice product.
Telefónica is distinctive because it is bringing that model inside the carrier itself. AT&T's international-calling VoIP app had already shown carriers could use apps to address a defined calling use case; Tu Me extends the challenge to integrated calling and messaging.
First-order effects
- Tu Me gives iPhone users free VoIP calling and messaging through a Telefónica app, placing the carrier's software product alongside the core communications services it sells.
- Telefónica takes responsibility for the customer-facing communications experience rather than leaving iPhone VoIP entirely to specialists such as Fring, Skype-linked services, and Vonage.
Second-order effects
- Carrier rivals face a clearer choice between protecting conventional voice offerings and launching their own app-based services, with AT&T already using VoIP for international calls.
- VoIP and messaging apps compete more directly for the user relationship on the iPhone, making an integrated contact and messaging experience a differentiator rather than calling alone.
Third-order effects
- If carriers continue to introduce apps that substitute for billed voice and messaging, communications competition shifts toward software interfaces and the data connection that carries them.
- The carrier model begins to separate connectivity from communications features: operators may use apps to retain engagement even as standalone voice services lose exclusivity.
The trend: Mobile carriers are starting to treat VoIP and messaging apps as a way to preserve the customer relationship while communications move from network-native services into software.