Internet communication service fring says it's been forced to end its Skype interconnectivity following the threat of legal action. This news comes shortly after fring introduced an application that offered mobile video calling on the iPhone 4. (Apple's built-in video calling service only works between via WiFi and can only call other iPhones).
Avi Shechter, co-founder and CEO of fring, said "We are disappointed that Skype, who once championed the cause of openness, is now attempting to muzzle competition, even to the detriment of its own users. We apologize to our users for the impact of Skype’s bullying and we will be happy to reconnect with Skype once Skype reverses their decision."
Robert Miller, Skype's vice president of Legal, then responded with a blog post that said fring was breaching Skype’s terms of use and end user license agreement in the way it was using Skype software. He claimed fring’s misuse of Skype's software was damaging the Skype brand, pointing out that fring had withdrawn support for Skype video calls on the iPhone 4 without any warning.