Putting Skype onto a Symbian phone has proved more difficult than had been hoped, according to an interview given by co-founder and chief executive Niklas Zennstrom to a Finnish newspaper, as reported by Yahoo! News.

"When we begun developing the mobile phone version we didn't realise the number of technical obstacles. It is challenging and is taking much longer than expected."

Skype already has a version available for Pocket PC, which works well enough over Wi-Fi connections, but Symbian has many other devices and with increasing support for Wi-Fi and more low-cost data tariffs, a Skype client would be a useful addition, and one the company had hoped to launch last year.

While companies such as iSkoot can link in to the Skype network using a normal telephone connection for the mobile bit, having a true Skype client on the handset is technically more difficult, but potentially more disruptive to the mobile phone network operators.

Skype claims it wants to work with operators, but with T-Mobile already banning the use of VoIP on its data network it's hard to see how they are going to get along.

Networks may be grateful for the pause this delay gives them, but they are going to have to address the use of VoIP eventually. ®