Group Pushes FCC To Investigate Skype for iPhone

Macworld is reporting that an internet advocacy group has asked the FCC to investigate whether the WiFi-only restriction on the Skype for iPhone app is in violation of federal law. "Since its release on Tuesday, Skype for iPhone has been downloaded more than a million times — that's a rate of six downloads a second, according to the company. All this despite the fact the software only works via the iPhone's Wi-Fi connection, and not AT&T's 3G network. [...] The letter cites the FCC's Internet Policy Statement (PDF link) which states that 'consumers are entitled to run applications and use services of their choice' in order to 'preserve and promote the open and interconnected nature of the public Internet.'"

Comments

3g Good enough?

[supernatendo]

I don't think 3G is good enough whether or not it gives a public IP adress is besides the point... 3G can be expected to provide 384 kbit/s at or below pedestrian speeds, but only 128 kbit/s in a moving car...Thus making WiFi really the only viable way to do it in the first place. It's not so much them restricting it just to be evil...

Re:3g Good enough?

[dunkelfalke]

skype works well enough on my windows mobile phone and umts. 128 kbit/s is plenty for speech, especially if compressed (euro isdn uses an uncompressed 64 kbit/s channel for speech and it is way better than analogue landline).

Re:3g Good enough?

[supernatendo]

You are referring to Europe's ISDN lines, which are not IP based they are using a digital signal over POTS, which explains the better voice clarity. IP packets are handled differently since there is much more going on at once.

Re:3g Good enough?

[mysidia]

That's really all you need. 64 kilobits of voice (upstream) and 64 kilobytes downstream.

You don't need high quality, you don't need a high bit rate for usable voice, you just need good latency characteristics.

Also, Skype may not use it (at least not for free), but, with G.729 codec and the requisite compression, 8 Kilobits per second is enough, for a usable quality audio signal.

hypocrites

[nathan.fulton]

'consumers are entitled to run applications and use services of their choice' in order to 'preserve and promote the open and interconnected nature of the public Internet.'"

So AT&T/Apple get to create an effective monopoly by tabooing the use of the iPhone with other services, but their fanboys are up in arms when Skype provides a service that doesn't use 3G?

If anything, consumers should be weary of 3G lock-in. Who cares if an app only works via wifi? Why the hell would you use voip on your phone if you are already paying for the phone connection? Isn't that antithetical to any reason consumers would prefer voip to more traditional solutions?

Re:Where on the App Store is this "Skype"?

[Anonymous Coward]

I've searched for Skype on the App Store and I'm not seeing any official Skype app. Does anyone know the full exact name of the application on the App Store?

It's called Skype, just Skype.

http://www.apple.com/iphone/appstore/

Under "Top Apps" press Free, it's the first result.

Re:is the cellular network "public internet"

[mysidia]

It's not whether the protocol is open or not that means a node is participating in the internet. It's about whether there's a router or not that converts their local network communication to TCP/IP communication and communicates with other hosts.

You can be on an old Novell IPX/SPX network, and use pure IPX/SPX packets, if there's a machine that acts as a Proxy or Router, and converts those packets into IP packets, then you're definitely connected to the internet.

Since the sockets API is basically the same for the application developer, whether the connection to the internet is over WiFi or the cellular network.

The limitation in the Skype application seems artificially imposed as a means of limiting the quality of the application, and preventing it from detracting from cellular providers' per-minute usage charges, and protecting the limited available data bandwidth on the cell network.