AT&T To Allow VoIP On iPhone

Toe, The writes "On Tuesday, AT&T announced it will allow Apple to enable Voice over Internet Protocol applications, such as Skype, to run on its 3G wireless data network. Apple stated, 'We will be amending our developer agreements to get VoIP apps on the App Store and in customers' hands as soon as possible.' And Skype, while happy over the move, also stated, 'the positive actions of one company are no substitute for a government policy that protects openness and benefits consumers.'"

Comments

About time.

[base3]

Nice to see the robber barons on the run from the administration and the public instead of on the run for once.

Re:About time.

[aicrules]

I do not understand

Re:Bad deal for AT&T

[base3]

More like how important it is to AT&T not to have network neutrality codified into regulation. This move is only to mollify the FCC and get them off their backs so they can still double-dip by charging companies running popular sites for "preferential" (read non-degraded) access to AT&T subscribers.

AT&T sets developer guidelines?

[Sockatume]

They're revising the guidelines now AT&T's approved it. Does that mean that every iPhone developer in the world is limited by the guidelines set by one American network?

Wait Just a Minute

[sonicmerlin]

Is there any doubt AT&T is doing this in a feeble attempt to argue to the FCC that net neutrality laws aren`t needed? I have none.

Re:Wait Just a Minute

[gEvil (beta)]

There's absolutely no doubt that this is what AT&T is trying to do. This is par for the course for nearly any industry. As soon as the government starts looking into corporate practices and begins putting together something that will regulate an industry, that industry suddenly perks up, changes their behavior a little bit and says "No, see, we can self-regulate. No need to tell us what to do. The market is working." When in fact, if the market were working, the government wouldn't need to begin investigating those practices in the first place.

Who cares about VoIP

[WebMasterJoe]

I'm waiting for AT&T to allow regular calls on iPhone!

Re:But if you can't wait...

[socsoc]

I don't really see how $24.99 per month is a better deal than $20 over four months

Re:Bad deal for AT&T

[Carewolf]

Or the fact that the capitalist economy does indeed self regulate.

.. when threatened with government intervention.

Re:Bad deal for AT&T

[Dotren]

I think expanding network neutrality arguments to cell networks is a little over-reaching.

Which is exactly what AT&T and the other wireless providers want you to think. Hell, even the ISPs want you to think that for your cable/DSL.

Admittedly, I don't know the specifics completely nor do I know for sure if it extended to cellular providers, but sometime during the 90s the ISPs were provided money in some form or fashion to build up their infrastructure to support the growing userbase. They took the money but didn't use it the way they were supposed to. I'd be willing to bet most of these companies have the money now but they won't use it to do the upgrading needed.

Why should they? With heavily limited competition, they could give customers horrible service while increasing their rates and most would still use their service because there aren't any viable alternatives. Upgrading infrastructure and capacity does nothing to increase their profits as they've discovered they can simply oversell their existing capacity legally with the magic words "speeds up to". Profits go up with no extra cost to expand which makes their actual customers, the shareholders, happy.