RSSShould AT&T be obliged to enable Skype for the iPhone?
By Scott M. Fulton, III | Published April 6, 2009, 11:15 AM
With the P2P voice communication service Skype now available for Apple's iPhone, eBay's venture into the telecommunications field now is now deployed on the world's most prominent handset. Apple is supporting the application by making it available on the iTunes App Store; reports tout Skype as the single most downloaded free application on iTunes.
That's a problem for carrier partners such as AT&T, because the business model on which the iPhone is based presumes customers will be placing calls on the carrier's network, not through the Internet. Last Friday, AT&T fired a shot across Apple's bow, with its senior executive vice president for legal affairs, Jim Cicconi, stating for USA Today, "We absolutely expect our vendors...not to facilitate the services of our competitors."
Cicconi's statement came in response to questions about whether AT&T could go forward with plans to stifle Skype's use on the iPhone and other handsets. Officially, it hasn't yet done so, although users are reporting unofficial moves are taking place. An official Skype blockade would not be unusual for the carrier, which two years ago blocked calls to a free call conferencing service that used the Internet as its backbone. Those were blocked telephone calls, however; blocking Skype would require some kind of IP address restriction.
In fairness, Cicconi didn't actually address whether AT&T would go that far with Skype, and actually seemed to imply that the ball was in Apple's court with regard to maintaining its bargain with AT&T. But in an immediate effort to pre-empt any move AT&T may choose to make, the advocacy group Free Press wrote Acting Federal Communications Commission Chairman Michael Copps (PDF available here), urging him to make AT&T adhere to FCC guidelines regarding accessibility of Internet services through wireless carriers.
"Wireless networks demonstrate numerous anti-consumer practices that may be violations of the Commission's Internet Policy Statement," write Free Press' policy advocates Ben Scott and Chris Riley. "In some cases, these appear to be outright restrictions on applications, services or devices imposed by the carrier. In other cases, there appears to be a business relationship between carriers and equipment vendors designed to cripple applications or hinder consumer choice for anticompetitive purposes."
Riley and Scott referred to the FCC's 2005 Statement (PDF available here), which Copps has championed frequently since its adoption. The Statement provides four guiding principles for preserving wireless consumer choice in Internet services, one of which states, "Consumers are entitled to run applications and use services of their choice, subject to the needs of law enforcement."
As the conclusion of the Commission's 2005 document reads, "The Commission has a duty to preserve and promote the vibrant and open character of the Internet as the telecommunications marketplace enters the broadband age." But that actually may be inaccurate, for reasons which the Statements document makes clear in the preamble: The FCC doesn't actually regulate Internet commerce or transactions; the Telecommunications Act restricts its purview to the public airwaves and private carriers. Yet the FCC took it upon itself to regulate how the carriers under its purview provide access to the Internet. In so doing, it opened up a debate over whether it had the right to do so in the first place.
This will be one of the major issues facing incoming FCC chairman Julius Genachowski, upon being confirmed by Congress. On one side of the argument, the FCC has proclaimed its own duty to maintain free and fair access to Internet services through carriers. On the other side, the FCC also has a duty to preserve the local and nationwide phone services from which states, cities, and municipalities receive a good chunk of their tax revenue -- another income source that Skype's very existence directly threatens.
AT&T requires me to purchase 450 minutes per month. I'm lucky to use 10% of that amount. I've currently got over 4000 rollover minutes and part of those are expiring after a year. Once in a while I do use the iPhone for voice communications but for me the data plan is the reason to own an iPhone. The telephone is perhaps 8th or 9th on my list of what I use the iPhone for.
So I don't need Skype for domestic calls. I'm already paying for more minutes than I can use. Where Skype comes in handy is for international calls, and especially when traveling in a foreign country where AT&T's ugly international roaming rates will put a major dent in your bank account.
Also, if you want your iPhone to ring for incoming Skype calls you will need to log into your Skype account on your computer and enable Skype call forwarding to your iPhone's AT&T phone number. Skype will then forwrard incoming calls to your regular AT&T iPhone number. You pay Skype a small charge for this service. You would also pay AT&T's roaming charges, if any, and those calls will deduct from your AT&T minutes. Otherwise you'd have to have the Skype app running on your iPhone to receive an incoming call (this may change with version 3.0 of the iPhone software that enables background notification).
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|Skype is still available in the iTunes store. Also, currently Skype only works with WiFi, not through 3G. That means that it has nothing to to with AT & T. When you use Skype, you utilize the hardware (Apple) and your Internet provider or hotspot. AT & T has no saying about this. It also doesn't use the data plan, it's WiFi only.
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|Now we know Skpye is a competitor to ATT. But Apple why removed it?? I use a iTouch with skpye??? No I have to Jail break it.
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|You use an iPod touch? So, do I and the application seems to be running just fine.
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|Well they already don't block the multitude of "IM" apps out their for the iPhone. You'd think they'd want to force people to use text and thus whack them for the overages or make them pay for the more texts-per-month-plans. Based on this anti-Skype thinking.
So why block Skype?
Or maybe I just gave ATT an idea now on to block the IM apps...heh.
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|Skype now appears to be removed from the app store...
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|Bye Bye Unlimited Data plan is what this says to me.
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|I'm stuck in a 2 year contract for this phone and every little thing is extra for what would normally be included with any other pda phone.
I'm stuck with a 2 year unlimited iphone data plan and I'll be damned if they're not voiding the contract by limiting it.
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|Ya, but it's so cool.
It's gotta be worth the extra money to have the iPhone...I mean...it's cool to have one right? That's why the Mac's are more expensive and support fewer applications, its not about the actual functionality of the device, it's about being cool after all. And I'm sure your happy to pay the premium price for being cool.
(Sorry, door was wide open on that one.)
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|Actually, as a graphic designer I use Macs. I have for years, long before they were considered cool. The simple fact remains that for design, a Mac is far superior to a PC. Because PDA manufactures fail to recognize that people in the design business use Macs, I had limited sync and update capabilities with previous phones. Enter the iPhone, a PDA phone made for the Mac, now everything that I have is compatible ... that's what makes it cool. I could care less who else has one.
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|^^^ I couldn't agree more (with Intrusive_Rogue)!
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|It's AT&T's 3G data network and the FCC hasn't had any problem with carriers blocking phones from tethering to laptops, so I really doubt the FCC is going to require AT&T (or any other wireless carrier for that matter) to allow competing voice services be used over its data network.
Skype on Wi-Fi is a completely different matter entirely. AT&T isn't going to block it, and despite what Deutsche Telekom says, it can't do anything but make an unenforceable rule about it.
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|i believe its the decision of the fcc and not at&t's.
it will be a cold day in hell before at&t begins to believe again that they have dominance over communications.
isn't time for the fcc to innoculate the free market and break up at&t again?
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|Yes, breaking up AT&T was smart. It brought us Worldcom who dumped a lot of their long distance on AT&T's facilities and duped investors out of billions. It brought us throw away phones and slamming. The phone industry is full of criminals now. Try using a pay phone in Texas and and make a 2 minute long distance call and see what you are charged.
Eventually, Skype will be taxed like any other long distance service and that will be the end of it. Obama is shaking the trees for more money to support his agenda. Also, cities and states will soon figure out what they are missing out on. Everyone wants taxes.
Using a data service for telephone service is ethically wrong and dishonest. I wouldn't blame any company for blocking phone service running across their data network.
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|You know what? If the phone companies weren't pseudo-monopolies who owned every single phone line in my area I might agree with your statement. In my daily life though there are two areas I need to frequent (one for work and one for home which is 40 miles away). One network belongs to AT&T. They own all of the phone lines. The other area belongs to Verizon. They too own every phone line. So, what you are basically saying is that I'm stuck with ATT and Verizon whether I like it or not? I don't think that's fair at all. It's not my fault one company has the money to lobby the government and keep the little companies down. I shouldn't have to suffer because of this. The same could be said about energy providers as well but that's neither here nor there.
So - that's just my 2 cents. Have a great day!
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|"the business model on which the iPhone is based presumes customers will be placing calls on the carrier's network, not through the Internet"
Minor point: If they are surfing the internet on their phone, are the not using the very same network they use to place calls; the very same network they are already paying for via their data-plan?
If AT&T isn't making enough off of the Data-plan, perhaps they should look at their pricing.... (But it's always easier to blame someone else...I know, let's blame the customer!)
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|We all know that this is really about competition. ATT is looking at the big picture. The "what if ALL Iphone users get skype" picture.
Then, theoretically speaking...all the Iphone users of the world, ATT or not can call each other for free, not using up their minutes for any of these phonecalls [assuming skype to skype is still free on the iphone, I assume it is]. Beyond that they can call any skype user for free [think, home computer, skype wifi phones, winmo devices on any network], so really it is at least somewhat of a real threat.
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|Again, if they are not charging enough for their data-plan.... who's fault is that?
Last I checked, Skype used data, right?
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|I think most of AT&T's plans offer free mobile to mobile, so all the iphone users can call each other for free anyway.
The only thing AT&T would need to be concerned by is someone getting skype, paying the skype fee and making all US calls for free over skype.
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|...still uses the data-plan. Right?
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|Okay, I'll answer the obvious...
Yes.
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|That's my point (and thank you). Someone said in a previous thread that it was the customer's fault or Apple's fault for allowing the app, but no-one seemed to grasp that the service/network the app uses *is* part of the plan and paid for on the monthly bill.
If anyone is at fault for AT&T not getting their "cut" on the Data-plan....that would be AT&T's fault, right?
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