Pay for making WhatsApp voice calls?

WhatsApp was initially released as a chat platform for smartphone users. The app was welcomed by millions and now, almost every second smartphone user has been using it. A few months ago, WhatsApp was developing the chat platform to help users make voice calls with each other. Finally, after months of testing, WhatsApp has made voice calling on the chat platform available for all Android smartphone users.

WhatsApp developers have also been testing the same on iPhone and Windows phones as the feature finally needs to be available across all mobile platforms. So now, you can make voice calls to anyone in the world using your internet, rather than paying through your telecom provider using ISD call rates.  However, it seems that the telecom providers are suddenly feeling the heat with WhatsApp allowing users to make voice calls.

fin24tech reported that Econet, a telecom service provider in Zimbabwe, is asking its users to pay for WhatsApp’s voice calling service separately.

Econet Wireless is the largest mobile company in Zimbabwe, having over 8 million subscribers in its network. It is offering social media bundles for Facebook and WhatsApp separately, which ranges between $0.3 to $3 for each day’s use. Rival operators NetOne and Telecel Zimbabwe also have the same rates offered.

Since users and subscribers are banking WhatsApp’s voice calling feature to make cheap international calls, Econet has now said that the WhatsApp voice calling function is not covered by the unlimited social bundles for the application. This clearly means that WhatsApp users will have to pay separately for making voice calls over and above the social bundle package.

The report also mentions network equipment company Sandvine’s chief technology officer, Don Bowman, stating that, last year, WhatsApp was taking almost a third of Econet Wireless’ network usage. "Many subscribers are using first generation smartphones and talk and text plans. This bundle has opened up an opportunity for Econet to launch service plans that incentivise subscribers to move to data-driven services that are affordable to users and profitable to the network," said Bowman.

Well, this is the state in Zimbabwe for now. Back here in India, telecom service providers too are feeling the heat by WhatsApp’s new voice calling feature since it will cut down the revenue from international calls. Well, if the ‘heat’ is too much for them too, we could also see a similar trend coming down on us from telecom providers.

However, previous applications such as Skype was always free to internet users. When Google and Facebook allowed voice over their chat applications, no telecom service provider felt the threat. Now why the hullabaloo?

Would you want to pay separately for using WhatsApp calling?