You recall T-Mobile blocking Truphone, right? T-Mobile is notorious for not only blocking Truephone, but also blocking VoIP and third-party text messaging as well. Well, today a judge has instructed T-Mobile (UK) to stop blocking calls to Truphone.  The judge granted a mandatory injunction forcing T-Mobile (UK) Ltd to interconnect with Truphone, which provides a low-cost internet telephony service on mobile phones.

James Tagg, Truphone's chief executive officer, said:
• "The injunction is good news not only for Truphone but for every company trying to develop internet-era services and for every consumer wanting freedom of choice and lower prices. We are determined to bring better-value mobile calls, text messages and other innovative services to mobile phone users, and it's right that we should not be prevented from doing so."
• "To be granted interim relief means we successfully demonstrated that we have an arguable case to make at a full trial."
• "We didn't want to go to court but we had no choice: T-Mobile was effectively preventing the launch of the Truphone service so we had to take urgent action."

1.    T-Mobile was instructed by the judge to stop blocking and begin routing calls to Truphone numbers by Monday 23rd July.
2.    Today's ruling is the first time that interim relief has been awarded against a mobile network operator under the Competition Act.
3.    Full details of both sides' skeleton legal arguments are available - for Truphone click here, and for T-Mobile click here. The judgment is expected to be available electronically tomorrow [Tuesday July 17th].

Here's a video of James Tagg giving his reaction to the court order on the steps of the Royal Courts of Justice