Posted on 04/03/2009 1:45:05 PM PDT by msrngtp2002
April 3, 2009 (Computerworld) An advocacy group today asked the Federal Communications Commission to decide whether AT&T Inc. and Apple Inc. have broken federal rules by blocking iPhone owners from using the recently released Skype voice-over-Internet service on AT&T's 3G wireless network.
"If you look at the consumer rights [spelled out] in the FCC's Internet Policy Statement, there is a chance that they might be violation by this practice," said Chris Riley, the policy counsel for Free Press, a Washington-based media reform group.
(Excerpt) Read more at computerworld.com ...
And if AT&T is trying to block competitors, I think that that's a scary, anti-competitive move. They're trying to use their network to prevent competition.
Exactly WHAT would you expect a well run corporation to do with THEIR network? Make it available for free to competitors? That's pure insanity.
I own a small, regional fiber optic network and you can bet a dime to a dollar that I use my network to block competitors. Unless and until the FCC buys my network it will never be open to competitors - I paid for it, it is mine, they can't use it.
AT&T sucks, period.
I wish Apple chose to not limit itself on the GSM/GPRS contract, there is a major CDMA market out there.
Yeah, but this was about AT&T.
I’m confused why you would use Skype on a cell phone. Sounds counterproductive to me. Why not just use the cell phone to make the call?
How much of your private network was built using the power of the government to force people to allow you to have right of way access?
I don't know what the AT&T contracts are like, but the customer might have a limited number of phone calls but unlimited data usage.
Do you make it quite clear to your customers that you limit what bits they can send and to whom? Or do you just block sites silently or degrade certain internet packets to interfer with your customer's data stream?
As I understand it, you can hook up to wireless networks on the more expensive cellphones such as the IPOD. No need for a cellular plan if you travel from network to network.
In addition,”AT&T’s 3G wireless network” You wouldn’t be charged for minutes or other features that Skype would offer that would be covered by the AT&T’s limited contract.
As I understand it, you can hook up to wireless networks on the more expensive cellphones such as the IPOD. No need for a cellular plan if you travel from network to network.
In addition,”AT&T’s 3G wireless network” You wouldn’t be charged for minutes or other features that Skype would offer that would be covered by the AT&T’s limited contract.
I’m not an AT&T fan. With their history, it’s somewhat surprising they would risk anti-competitive behavior. They bought my regional phone company, and bills have been skyrocketing since then. I canceled my cell with them and have thought about losing the landline.
iPhones come with unlimited data use, but limited packages of voice minutes. AT&T currently blocks Skype from using their cellular data connection because if they didn’t, all of their iPhone customers would download the free Skype program and make all of their calls over Skype. This would use AT&T’s network resources, but not count against the customer’s allotted calling minutes.
If this were allowed any smart customer would just opt for the cheapest smallest monthly plan and then use Skype for all of their calls.
If the FCC gets involved and forces AT&T to allow Skype over their cellular connections then AT&T will almost certainly stop offering unlimited Internet use and start selling limited packages and/or charging by the kilobyte.
Ah got it. Didn’t realize the iPhones had unlimited data by default. I can get unlimited data through AT&T but would cost me another $30 a month per phone. I’m throwing away rollover minutes every month now cause I don’t talk that much so skype would be a money waster on my phone.
Because if you use Skype you could just get the cheapest voice plan w/ unlimited data and then talk all day for cheap. That's lost income to ATT plus Skype users use more bandwidth than what is typically used browsing on a phone, which costs ATT money. I'd love to say ATT is wrong here but the 3G buildout isn't cheap, nor is the coming LTE system. Of course when LTE arrives voice plans will be history and all plans will be based on data usage. At that point ATT won't care if you use Skype because you'll be paying for every bit of data you use.
Private enterprise doing that they want. Oh Noes!
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