It is just like a foe-turned friend situation. The grapevine has it that the two traditional rivals, Yahoo! and Skype are collaborating to develop a mobile network using the 700Mhz spectrum. No doubt, the network will be based on 3G, WiFi or VoIP technology.
It is no more surprising to see both the giants joining hands to explore the VoIP potentiality since Skype has a global community for its P2P VoIP, while Yahoo! for IM services. The combine force will bring a huge subscribers base for the wireless phone or broadband services that they are planning to do.
Andy has an interesting revelation on the Yahoo-Skype partnership. He says in his blog,
Given how Yahoo and Microsoft are partners on IM. And how Yahoo and the iLecs/RBOC’s are partners on access, and how Yahoo Messenger with voice has been soft peddled by “Skippy”-Brad Garlinghouse and the “Rock Star”-Jeff Bonforte in the direction of the DSL partners to not erode market share, but there for the RBOCs when they want it.
