Less than a week after its debut, T-Mobile’s free Facebook voice calling service, Bobsled, has apparently veered off course. The company noted in a message on its Facebook page that it was temporarily disbanding the service. The company wrote:
We are voluntarily and temporarily suspending the Bobsled service as we work with our partners at Facebook to address their design questions, including working to ensure that the Bobsled experience is clearly differentiated and is not mistaken for a Facebook created property. We apologize to our customers for this temporary disruption in service.
We actually gave Bobsled a quick try last week. It worked just fine and the confusion with Facebook was minimal in part because users must agree to download the app.
It is a bit unusual to see a company like T-Mobile back away from a newly-launched service, so there may be more at play here than meets the eye.
Interestingly, Facebook and Skype have been rumored to be working on an integrated voice calling service themselves.
Did T-Mobile step on the wrong toes with Bobsled?
