Skype Ltd. is asking the U.S.Federal Communications Commission to open up the country's mobile phone industry for "unlocked" devices and third-party applications. Skype is using the precident set back in 1968 by the FCC when telephone companies were forced to allow other companies to sell products that can be added to telephones (i.e., answering machines, wireless phones, caller I.D.)

Skype claims that cell phone carriers shouldn't stop consumers from attaching any device to the wired telecommunications network as long as it couldn't do any damage. Allowing any device connect to cellular networks would gradually open the door to a wide range of new choices for consumers, including handsets that use VOIP for voice calls over operators' 3G (third-generation) data networks. Almost all cell phones in use on mobile networks in the U.S. are sold by the operators and locked so they can't be used on another provider's network. But Skype's proposal also would stop carriers from blocking or forbidding applications on 3G networks again, as long as those applications can't damage the network.