T-Mobile, VZW moving across mobile data value chain

T-Mobile (NYSE:DT) is taking its smartphones to the high end, announcing it will soon offer its first device capable of accessing its lightning-fast high-speed packet access plus network. Meanwhile, Verizon Wireless (NYSE:VZ, NYSE:VOD) is heading the opposite direction, taking a normally high-end smartphone application, Skype Mobile, and offering it on the humble feature phone.

Verizon is offering Skype as a BREW application on at least three multimedia phones, allowing customers to download it from VZW’s online media store or via short code. Verizon wasn’t clear on whether the app would be extended to its entire BREW line, but it did single out the LG enV, the LG Chocolate Touch and the Samsung Reality specifically as phones that could make and receive Skype calls and chat messages. Customers will be able to make unlimited Skype-to-Skype calls so long as they have a data plan.

T-Mobile didn’t reveal a launch date, pricing information or even a manufacturer for its first HSPA+ phone, but it did let slip a name: the T-Mobile G2 with Google. T-Mobile said the phone is designed to be the successor to the T-Mobile G1, which was the first Android handset and built by HTC, offering some hints.

“Delivering tight integration with Google services, the G2 will break new ground as the first smartphone specifically designed for our advanced HSPA+ network, which delivers today’s available 4G speeds,” T-Mobile said in a statement. “In the coming weeks we’ll share more details about the G2, including information on how current T-Mobile customers can get exclusive first access.”

T-Mobile is trying to make the most out of HSPA+ while it still has a sizable speed advantage over competitors moving to 4G. The advanced 3G network supports theoretical speeds as high as 21 Mb/s, though T-Mobile is reporting real-world speeds under 8 Mb/s. But even at those levels, the HSPA+ network is faster than the 4G WiMax service offered by Clearwire (NASDAQ:CLWR). Its HSPA+ network currently covers 85 million pops but it’s racing to fill in its UMTS network with the upgrade by year end, when AT&T is expected to launch its own HSPA+ service.

Meanwhile, Verizon is trying to expand the scope of its data plans down to its mid-tier customers, many of whom buy data-enabled phones but don’t subscribe to data plans. While Android and BlackBerry phones have supported Skype since earlier this year, those customers were already required to have a data plan. By extending a highly useful and sought after application like Skype Mobile to feature phones, VZW could potentially sign up millions more customers to data plans. Ironically, the primary Skype calling functions don’t use the data channel. Rather, Skype calls are routed over the CDMA 1X network and through VZW’s circuit-switched mobile switching centers before being converted to voice over IP in a Skype gateway.