Windows Phone Thoughts: T-Mobile UK Launching Flat-Rate HSDPA Service, With Insane Limitations

"T-Mobile UK has announced a flat-rate version of its data tariff, aimed primarily at business users. The release of Web'n'Walk Professional coincides with the introduction of a new data card, which will take advantage of T-Mobile's upcoming next-generation 3G service. Not only is it the first HSDPA-enabled data card to be offered by a major network in the UK, but it's also quad-band and has integrated Wi-Fi...Such high speeds would seem to make the new data card ideal for applications such as Internet telephony and instant messaging. However, the fine print for Web'n'Walk Pro reveals that these are explicitly banned by T-Mobile, and any user caught running the applications risks expulsion from the network."

Okay, I know Verizon Wireless' 3G service is famous here in the US for its limitations, but T-Mobile UK's taking it to a new level: no instant messaging on their flat-rate service? 8O Not only is IM (and most VoIP solutions, for that matter) very low-bandwidth, it's often a useful business tool, despite T-Mobile's suggestions otherwise. I presume T-Mobile UK has different (non-flat-rate) options that allow these services to run, but I'm increasingly disturbed that somehow carriers can decide that an IP network should somehow carry some traffic and not others based on how much one pays. I think it's understandable that bandwidth abusers are curbed, but attempts to undermine network neutrality to this extent may soon become a serious threat to the way the Internet is structured.