So much for kicking out the tenants and their lease-breaking little dogs…the analogy used by T-Mobile Germany to describe what it would do to customers found using internet telephony apps when it vowed in April to block their use. Germany’s largest carrier is now backing down from its threat to bar VOiP apps, such as Skype, by offering a VoIP surcharge that goes on sale this summer starting at 9.95 euros ($14) a month and up, depending on a customer’s plan. For those who don’t buy the add on, T-Mob said it would continue to block the use of the apps.

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T-Mobile Germany obviously knows that its stance on VoIP apps has stirred up controversy. In a long-winded explanation, MD Georg Pölzl pleaded the carrier’s case. Pölzl said in a statement it was necessary to charge extra for the use of VoIP apps as they required “additional investment in the network,” to handle their “always on” nature. “It would not be fair to customers who don’t use VoIP if these additional costs were to be shared across all customers. For this reason, we are making it possible to use Internet telephony via optional rates, while keeping it otherwise barred,” he said.

Not content to stop there, his statement ran on, underscoring “the many billions of euros” carriers have spent on their networks in recent years, and that these investments basically did not consider VoIP in their rate costings. Said Pölzl rather ominously, “If this basis is no longer certain, then neither is the operational future of the networks.”