I was taking a quick browse of the terms and conditions at the bottom of the Vodafone UK home page. Apart from some truly outrageous and unenforceable conditions that try to prevent you from quoting from or linking to their site, they have the following gems:
15. Profligate use
15.1. Profligate use of the Vodafone Network is prohibited. Vodafone considers that any applications which transmit live video, live audio or make similar traffic demands across the Vodafone Network by whatever means, unless provided by Vodafone, constitutes making profligate use of the Vodafone Network. Use of IP Multicast, other than by means provided and co-ordinated by Vodafone is also prohibited.
15.2. Notwithstanding Clause 15.1 above, you may transmit and receive live audio provided that the software used in respect of such transmission or receipt is H.323 compliant and utilises a CODEC with a bit rate no greater than that used by the default G.723 CODEC (6.3kbps).
So if you’ve bought yourself a kosher 3G or GPRS device, and fancy doing some SIP telephony with a good codec, you’re out of luck. Even if you’re paying per packet. So Vodafone’s need to feel in control of their network destroys the potential value it has for their own customers.
A quick comparison with Orange shows that Orange are much less tight-assed, and merely repeat a lot of rights they have anyway under copyright law.
Posted by Martin Geddes at 11:46 AMTrackBack URL for this entry:
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Interesting that you mention the T&Cs. I doubt that they bother most people, I'll certainly admit to blindly accepting licence agreeements when installing software.
As it happens, it was the T&Cs that determined my choice of broadband provider. BT in the UK had/has a very restrictive set of terms, everything from the method of connectivity, to what OS you could use. I went with my cable supplier (Telewest), who basically had a set of T&Cs which said "Do anything you want, just don't take the piss or expect our phone support to know anything about a non-default setup".