Why AT&T Killed iPhone Google Voice

ZuchinniOne writes "The Wall Street Journal has a very interesting article about the likely reasons that AT&T and Apple killed the Google Voice application. 'With Google Voice, you have one Google phone number that callers use to reach you, and you pick up whichever phone — office, home or cellular — rings. You can screen calls, listen in before answering, record calls, read transcripts of your voicemails, and do free conference calls. Domestic calls and texting are free, and international calls to Europe are two cents a minute. In other words, a unified voice system, something a real phone company should have offered years ago.'"

Comments

AT&T denies it

[davebarnes]

AT&T told the FCC that they did not have it killed.
http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/08/21/att-to-fcc-we-did-not-block-the-google-voice-app-on-the-iphone/

Full List

[TejWC]

Here is a full list for the lazy:

• A single Google number for all user's phones.
• Free calls and SMS in the contiguous US and Canada.
• Calling International phone numbers for as low as 0.01 USD per minute.
• Call screening. Announce callers based on their number or by an automated identification request for blocked numbers.
• Listen in on someone recording a voicemail before taking a call.
• Block calls.
• Send, receive, and store SMS online.
• Answer an incoming call on any of your phones.
• Phone routing. Choose which phones should ring based on who calls.
• Forwarding phones.
• Voicemail transcripts. Read voicemails online.
• Listen to voicemail online or from a phone.
• Receive notifications of voicemails via email or SMS.
• Personalized greeting that vary greetings by caller.
• The ability to forward or download voicemails.
• Conference calling.
• Record calls and store them online.
• Switch phones during a call.
• View the web inbox from a mobile device/phone.
• Set preferences for contacts by group.
• Ability to change your number for a fee.

Re:Full List

[harmonise]

It costs AT&T money to provide that bandwidth.

Which you are paying for. Google Voice IS NOT A VOICE OVER IP APPLICATION. Calls are placed and received over regular phone lines. You are still paying AT&T for the minutes you are using when you receive a call forwarded from your Google Voice number.

AT&T had nothing to do with it, apparently

[Ignis Fatuusz]

http://www.apple.com/hotnews/apple-answers-fcc-questions/ An unusual move for Apple, but apparently pretty straighforward.

Apple Admits It, Sort Of

[DannyO152]

And Apple said today it isn't killed, but still under review because it interferes with the iPhone interface. Here is their rationalization for their actions in what they claim is their response to the FCC.

My thanks to daringfireball and John Gruber for bringing this letter to my attention.

All three reports

[Anubis IV]

Engadget has the filings from all three of the involved companies.

I love how the speculation gets posted here when the official statements from all three companies are readily available. The only major redaction is Google's side of the story on why GV and other apps were rejected.

Re:Wall Street Journal

[MozeeToby]

This particular article was pretty good though. Thorough and generally well thought out, it also had that kind of shocked anger of someone who only just realized that they are being taken advantage of. I wouldn't be surprised if the author had started out writing a 'tell both sides of the story' kind of article, only to become more informed on the actual situation over the course of his research.

All that being said, I do take issue with one thing...

Verizon Wireless, T-Mobile and others all joined AT&T in bidding huge amounts for wireless spectrum in FCC auctions, some $70-plus billion since the mid-1990s. That all gets passed along to you and me in the form of higher fees and friendly oligopolies that don't much compete on price.

That is not how business works. If a certain behavior on their part can maximize revenues, they will implement it regardless of what the upfront costs were. If they had paid $10 for the spectrum, they would still charge high fees because that is what the market is willing to bear and that is what they feel with maximize their revenues and with that their profits. You can argue that the cost of spectrum raises the cost of entry into the market, but I don't see that as what the author is going for here.

Apple Just Admitted To It - Now You Look Foolish

[Anonymous Coward]

Apple just admitted that it was them and not AT&T.

http://www.apple.com/hotnews/apple-answers-fcc-questions/?sr=hotnews.rss

So much for all that crap you just wrote.

It will be funny to see all the Apple fanboys who were screaming "It was big bad AT&T and not my PRECIOUS Apple who was the bad guy!!!" and how their fanboy minds deal with this news.

Man, Apple couldn't possibly be blowing it more than they are. Google Voice is amazing.

AT&T is really AT&T.

[DragonWriter]

It helps to understand that AT&T is actually the old SBC. The AT&T name was sold to SBC.

SBC, which was originally "Southwest Bell", one of the "baby bells" created by the breakup of AT&T, and which had purchased several other baby bells in the intervening period, in 2005 also purchased AT&T (not just the AT&T name), and applied the AT&T name to the whole post-merger organization.

So, the new AT&T is, very much, the old (pre-1984) AT&T, even more than the 1984-2005 AT&T was.

Re:No.

[Enry]

AT&T killed google voice because the "Killer App" that the iPhone has (visual voicemail) is completely, totally, and utterly DESTROYED by it.

If you haven't used google voice, let me explain. Somebody leaves you a voicemail on your GV number. Google does voice recognition on it, and sends you an email of the text. In the email is a little widget that allows you to play the audio.

[...]

The voice recognition of GV is about as good as the handwriting recognition of the original Newton.

Here's what my brother actually said:

Hello, Happy Birthday my brother.

What GV said he said:

Hello, The bird say my brought their.

Fortunately, the audio was available, so I was able to easily hear what he said, but the other GV transcript I got from my wife wasn't much better (the drugstore CVS got turned into "we're going to see me yes").

Google Voice is nice, and I like using it, but don't think it's a miracle app.

Re:Google Voice Is Incredible

[whoop]

Have you ever clicked on the link labeled "Settings" on the Google Voice page? Down there a ways is a checkbox with the words "Transcribe Voicemails" next to it. Remove the checkmark there, and then click the "Save Settings" button right below it.