AT&T- Tear Down That Wall! Oh You Did? Never Mind.
Posted on 06 October 2009, at 9:00 pm, by Dan Cohen
Okay, so it doesn’t rank up with the tearing down of the Berlin Wall, but a major barrier to communication just came down. Until now AT&T refused to let customers use their iPhones to connect to services like Skype over 3G. All that changed in the blink of an eye, with AT&T making a surprise announcement.
Until now iPhone uses could only use VOiP services over WiFi, a policy that raised much ire, brought the use of the term “unlimited data” into question, and since other phones COULD USE 3G, made many an iPhone user feel like a second class citizen. No longer. The 3G pipes are open, and as soon as apps like Skype and Truphone can be reworked, we will have a whole lot of new options for making calls.
As Ralph de la Vega, chief executive of AT&T’s consumer and wireless unit, said
“IPhone is an innovative device that dramatically changed the game in wireless when it was introduced just two years ago. Today’s decision was made after evaluating our customers’ expectations and use of the device compared to dozens of others we offer.”
This is great news and suggests that things may be moving in a positive direction with regard to AT&T and Apple’s policies in a variety of areas.
It does, however, raise other questions. Will AT&T’s already strained network be able to handle the added traffic? Does this mean there will be a change in policy with regard to applications like SlingBox? Does it mean Apple will rethink their decision on Google Voice?
After today’s surprise announcement, I guess anything is possible.
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October 7th, 2009 at 6:17 am
I think this is the beginning of the end of voice as a premium cellular service. Now let’s wait for the data plan rate increases or caps (most likely).