Katie MarsalThe request was made Friday by Free Press, a group with a long history of lobbying against cable and wireless companies seeking to place restrictions on how consumers use their services, according the Wall Street Journal.
Released on Tuesday, the Skype application (Free, App Store) quickly shot to the top of the download charts on Apple's App Store and has since been installed on more than a million of the iPhone maker's handheld devices. It lets users communicate with other mobile or PC-based Skype users free of charge or place international calls to cell phones and traditional landlines for a nominal fee of about 2.1 cents per minutes.
As part of a concession made to AT&T, Apple's terms for software approval on the App Store prohibits VoIP-based applications like Skype from utilizing networks operated by wireless carriers. AT&T, like the vast majority of its peers, worry that offering that capability would eat into their high-margin service revenues.
That means Skype's is only useful when a user's iPhone is in range of a WiFi hotspot, limiting the potential for the software to help consumers cut back on their pricey monthly service plans with wireless providers. It was reported earlier this week that Deutsche Telekom's T-Mobile unit, Apple's wireless partner in Germany, was considering a restriction that would ban users from operating Skype even on its own WiFi network.
"Free Press and other consumer advocates want the FCC to affirm that so-called net neutrality protections also cover wireless networks," the Journal's report explains. "That would prevent AT&T or other operators from blocking services like Skype on their mobile networks."
Possibly working in the group's favor is the Democratic administration that's recently taken charge of the FCC, the report adds. President Barack Obama is a stalwart supporter of net neutrality, as is his choice for FCC chairman, Julius Genachowski.
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60 Comments
Free Press' request for the FCC to investigate AT&T's obviously anti-competitive behavior would have been answered with a Foghorn Leghorn, "I say, I say, go away, boy! Don't bother me."
Now that the grown-ups are in charge and the Rule of Law is returning, this might get a serious look.
As the write states, Apple was forced by ATT (and presumably other carriers have said so as well) to restrict VOIP from their data networks. The bigger issue is ATT and other mobile carriers explicitely changing their terms of service to dissallow VOIP or charge significantly more for the priviledge to have access.
But really, as great as Skype is generally, how horrible would it be if you could use it over the mobile data network. ATT's network is already strained w/o adding more data usage to the mix.
Free Press' request for the FCC to investigate AT&T's obviously anti-competitive behavior would have been answered with a Foghorn Leghorn, "I say, I say, go away, boy! Don't bother me."
Now that the grown-ups are in charge and the Rule of Law is returning, this might get a serious look.
Rule of law returning... don't kid yourself and take off the blinders.
Rule of law returning... don't kid yourself and take off the blinders.
I think he meant rule of Not Paying Your Taxes returning.
Rule of law returning... don't kid yourself and take off the blinders.
Well in terms of the SEC he's absolutely right. It's not really a stretch to think that the FEC might have a similar turn.