Which in this case means that if Google wants to deliver it, and you want to use it, Google WILL find a way to do so. Even if the device mfr says NO! Well in this case its AT&T/Apple saying no to a Google Voice app on the iPhone.

Now I understand why AT&T did not want it, it hurts their voice traffic income. But do both of these partners realize the semi truck load of a mistake they just made? Had Google followed their original plan they would have locked the Google Voice into the app space of the iPhone architecture. Doing so would have meant Google duplicating that for any subsequent smart phone with the attendant hassles and costs of handling multiple variants of software. Now?

Now Google has turned the software and the iPhone into a VoIP TERMINAL. Unleashed from the underlying architecture Google Voice can now live on any device capable of handling HTML5. Any smart phone, MID, Nettop, Netbook, you name it. That single denial has unleashed a monster, at least for a Telco.

Very dumb AT&T.

Linky.

While we keep hearing reports of performance and coverage problems with AT&T’s 3G network. Most of AT&T’s DSL subscribers have the same available bandwidth as they have had for years. But hey, mobile apps are hot, so why not invest in them and sell them to your captive wireless subscribers?

De la Vega noted the explosion in application growth in the U.S. cell phone market over the past year. “No country has seen the growth we have seen,” he said. In 2009, U.S. wireless consumers downloaded 832.7 million applications, a ninefold increase over the past two years. He also noted that revenue from these downloads has increased some 60 percent.

At the company-sponsored event held on the eve of the Consumer Electronics Show, de la Vega outlined AT&T’s strategy for pushing new applications onto a slew of new devices, and he provided a glimpse into how the company plans to help developers make this happen and make sure its network can keep up with increased demand for data, especially on its mobile network. (Cnet)

The FCC has pretty much indicated that “line sharing” is not going to happen, and the last talk of open wireless devices ended with departure of the prior FCC chair. AT&T customers should expect more add ons and nickel and dime services on the same underpowered AT&T networks next year.  With no competition, AT&T can keep charging more for less.

Just when I thought we had reached the bottom of stupidity for what goes as political belly dragging along comes someone with an even lower rut in the road. –

The suit claims that AT&T should turn over unused balances on the calling cards of consumers whose last known address was in Washington, D.C. and have not used the calling card for three years.

“AT&T’s prepaid calling cards must be treated as unclaimed property under district law,” the attorney general’s office said in a statement.

According to the attorney general’s office, that sum, known in the industry as “breakage,” represents some 5 to 20 percent of the total balances purchased by consumers who use the calling cards.

States and municipalities have often similarly used unclaimed property laws, known as escheat laws, to claim ownership of unused retail gift card balances.

Yes escheat laws are on the books and yes calling cards would probably fall under their provisions. Where I have angst is that this is conversion not escheat. Why? Simple. Unlike say a checking account or valuables recovered in a crime and not recovered where the owner will never be found. In AT&T case they probably do know where the calling card customer is. All they have to do is dial the last known originating call on that card and they probably have an 80% chance of finding them. Not only that but the State has the obligation to attempt to find the ‘owner’ of the lost minutes.

So here is where it will get Macabre to the extreme. High likelyhood that the lost minutes are 5min or less. In today’s world that’s maybe .50¢. So in order to legally claim those ‘assets’ DC would have to at least do a search for the owner. The cost of the search is? Guarantee you its more than .50¢! That is why I say this is conversion not escheat. The only way the DC govt can do this is by not following or severely modifying the escheat laws.

Anybody disagree with that logic?

Linky.
HT:Reason Online.

That is pulling the plug on POTS. You know that little jingly thing your mother and grandmother still use at lifeline rates? Yes its still out there but dwindling by the day. So what happens? –

In response to a Notice of Inquiry released by the FCC to explore how to transition to a purely IP-based communications network, AT&T has declared that it’s time to cut the cord. AT&T told the FCC that the death of landlines is a matter of when , not if, and asked that a firm deadline be set for pulling the plug.

AT&T tells the FCC that supporting traditional POTS landlines is impeding investment in broadband, VoIP, and wireless services.AT&T said in its response to the FCC that “with each passing day, more and more communications services migrate to broadband and IP-based services, leaving the public switched telephone network (”PSTN”) and plain-old telephone service (”POTS”) as relics of a by-gone era.”

It also stated “It makes no sense to require service providers to operate and maintain two distinct networks when technology and consumer preferences have made one of them increasingly obsolete.”

Is AT&T right? Yes. The fact is Central Office based systems have long lead times and nearly as long tax treatment. Most of the majors were using 19/20yr MACRS or ACRS depreciation on the capital investment as that was agreed to by both the industry and the IRS as appropriate, circa 1950’s. Little has changed on that front ever since. But that poses a problem for say Version who just put a new CO remote in 5 years ago. (Rare as that is.) So how would that install be treated? Under the current rules an accelerated recapture would take place for junking the equipment. That’s a major hit when you consider that even today CO investments are in the billions. So the Telcos would push for tax relief if devaluation ever happened.

My gut says not so fast. Even though what AT&T says is true I have the tingly feeling in the back of my head that it won’t work out that way. AT&T would take the revised recapture relief to the bank, not do any more R&D/advanced services/VOIP/network upgrades, then cry poor mouth all the way into the CEO’s pocket. I am not against AT&T, its just how these guys have operated for years. I have been in the belly of this beast to know better.

There of course is another fly in the ointment to a devaluation of CO networks. I call it the other 1200. That is approximately how many phone companies there are in this country. Most are small operators, functioning as COOPs in rural territory that none of the majors even want to touch. At a minimum there would have to be some sort of relief offered to these companies. At a minimum most would require a DSLAM to get their customers on to VOIP. Most likely SBA enhanced funding would have to be offered at 0% interest to these companies. To date I have not heard of any plans to do so.

Devaluing the POTS network has to happen. We need to realize that as soon as possible. We also need to make sure that in the switch serious profit taking does not occur. Compensation where needed, support where required, but in the end it should be a net-net wash.

Linky.

Well you better hang on to your wallet! AT&T is preparing to readjust its pricing and policies. Oh and it does not apply to just iPhone, but any smartphone data enabled device —

IPhone users who jam the airwaves by watching video on their devices will be put on tighter leashes, an AT&T Inc. executive said Wednesday.

The carrier has had trouble keeping up with wireless data usage, leading to dropped connections and long waits for users trying to run programs on their devices. AT&T is upgrading its network to cope, but its head of consumer services, Ralph de la Vega, told investors at a UBS conference in New York that it will also give high-bandwidth users incentives to “reduce or modify their usage.”

Well this sounds like the knee jerk reaction of a bunch of suits who did not listen to the network engineers. If you sell a device capable of doing full signal video on a 2″ screen, well damn don’t blame the customer wanting to use it. Especially if you and your partners feature such capabilities in your advertisements.

Now in a capitalist system, price adjusting is ‘the’ method for moderating demand. It will work for bandwidth too. So no faults there. But where I would draw the line is — if flows to the shareholders or the executive suite totally then shame. A significant portion of the bounty ought to go to upgrading the network to increase capacity. That is what the engineer in me says.

No data on changes, prices or when this all happens. But do keep this in mind there dear reader. When it happens you can then opt out without an ETF charge if you wish.

Linky.

When two elephants start a fracas in the room what is the best course of action? Get the Hell out of the room of course! Well that is what is preparing to go on between Verizon and AT&T. The two are locked horns on the coverage map ads that Verizon is running in reference to their 3G wireless network

I hope the judge has a good sense of humor. He will need it for this case. –

In essence, we believe the ads mislead consumers into believing that AT&T doesn’t offer ANY wireless service in the vast majority of the country. In fact, AT&T’s wireless network blankets the US, reaching approximately 296M people. Additionally, our 3G service is available in over 9,600 cities and towns. Verizon’s misleading advertising tactics appear to be a response to AT&T’s strong leadership in smartphones. We have twice the number of smartphone customers… and we’ve beaten them two quarters in a row on net post-paid subscribers. We also had lower churn — a sign that customers are quite happy with the service they receive.

The fun part of this? Like these two companies don’t have something else to do? Like maybe lay some fiber or something? But it is par for the course in the Telco industry. Now I suspect that why AT&T did this has little to do with the ads and more to do with some underlying cross interlata agreement they have been locking horns on. You don’t burn $1,000/hr in legal costs for this kind of piddly stuff.

Endgadget has the gory details.

This blog has been saying that voice channels on mobile is a anachronism. With the largest chunk of CPE now being smart that supports both a voice and data channel, the reality is the voice channel is passe. Well it looks like AT&T saw the handwriting –

Bowing to openness pressure from the FCC, AT&T renounced on Tuesday its opposition to internet telephone calls that use the iPhone’s 3G data connection.

In short, Skype on the iPhone is now OK by AT&T, the company said in letters to Apple and the FCC.

AT&T’s change of heart comes just after the FCC controversially announced that it was planning to extend internet openness rules to mobile networks. The wireless carriers are fighting back, arguing that wireless networks are not robust enough to operate without intense network management.

AT&T made no mention of the FCC in its announcement, crediting the change instead to a routine examination of its policies.

Now the result we applaud. Though we are left with a bad after taste considering that AT&T was dragged there kicking and screaming. But that is not a panacea either. Consider that in certain markets like NYC the 3G bandwidth is overburdened and drops are a given with the average iPhone user. So having a Skype call dropped could be annoying. Especially since 1/3 of iPhone data calls are dropped daily.

We are 2 steps forward, one step back. We now have some open light on open access. But we are hindered by the lack of bandwidth coupled with a reduced revenue of the providers to fund the upgrades for more bandwidth.

Linky.

To be sure, a certain number of dropped calls are to be expected when you’re dealing with the wonders of cellular communication, but some phones do seem to fare worse then others when paired with certain carriers in particularly congested regions. Apparently fed up with such problems in New York, Gizmodo reader Manoj decided to stop by an Apple Store to see if something might be wrong with his iPhone — this, after apparently being assured by AT&T that everything was all right on its end. After a few tests, the Apple Genius determined that Manoj’s phone was dropping 22 percent of its calls, which turns out to actually be “excellent” compared to most iPhone users in the New York area, where a dropped call rate of 30 percent is said to be average — according to the dude at the store, anyhow. The Genius further went on to confirm that the phone was indeed “fully functional,” and that the problem is “consistent with the service provided by AT&T.” So, nothing to worry about, folks — everything is “normal.”

22% drop rate with 30% average in NYC. Sounds to me like AT&T has a backhaul problem. NYC is a dense wireless area, even for 3G. Of course there is that pesky data hang time. Or it used to be. The way I see some women with the cellphone surgically attached to their ear I tend to wonder. (Sorry ladies, not sexist, just observational fact.)

I wonder if T-Mobile is having the same problems with the Google phone?

Whole thing here.

Wireless carriers, which have been among the fiercest opponents of such regulation, continue to restrict what kind of data travels over the airwaves they control. For example, earlier this year, AT&T restricted an Internet-phone service from Skype so iPhone users couldn’t place calls on AT&T’s cellular network. At the time, AT&T cited network congestion concerns.

“We believe that this kind of regulation is unnecessary in the competitive wireless space as it would prevent carriers from managing their networks — such as curtailing viruses and other harmful content — to the benefit of their consumers,” said Chris Guttman-McCabe, vice president of regulatory affairs for CTIA, the wireless industry’s trade group.

If the FCC does force U.S. wireless carriers to open their networks to data-heavy applications like streaming video, it could push them beyond the limited capacity they have. Already, in areas like New York and San Francisco, a high concentration of iPhones has caused many AT&T customers to complain about degrading service.

In such a scenario, wireless carriers may have to rethink how much they charge for data plans or even cap how much bandwidth individuals get, said Julie Ask, a wireless analyst at Jupiter Research.

Granted, the FCC proposals that are supposed to be released tomorrow have some far ranging effects. The Boss covered it in a prior posting from the ISP point of view. But wireless would be effected by this as well.

There has been a minor snit going on with iPhone/AT&T and the Skype folks. Skype has developed an app for iPhone to provide VoIP service on the data channel. Google has similar GoogleTalk for Android (though not available for T Mobile). Well the new rules would change all that.

The carriers would finally have to face the fact that voice as a channel is dead. If they do, we will see a major alignment in their pricing plans post haste. Which should bring a major consumer battle to the fore. I the iPhone user will make the claim that I am permitted to use Skype on the data channel as I wish at the old contracted rate for my plan. The Carriers will of course say the presence of Skype on the device voids the contract and the new rates apply. Figure a nice lawsuit will ensue.

But the bigger problem for the carriers is investment. They need to get bigger pipes out on the ether. But in this economy they are loathe to pay for the capital investment to make a go of it. Even in major urban centers like NYC there are congestion problems on the AT&T network, a problem that will probably persist for quite some time.

Tomorrow should be interesting!

Linky.

AT&T subscribers, we have good news and bad news. The bad news is that as of September 6th, AT&T will begin requiring that all smartphones sign up for a smartphone data plan. The good news is that customers with smartphones purchased prior to September 6th with non-smartphone data plans will be grandfathered in and will not have to upgrade their current plans. Note that if you currently use a feature phone with a data plan and you upgrade to a smartphone on or after September 6th, you will not be able to keep your current MediaNet plan.

We’ve been hearing rumblings to this effect for a few weeks now but as of this morning it’s 100% confirmed thanks to an internal email from one of our ninjas. AT&T’s claimed reasoning behind the move: to ensure customers receive a predictable bill each month. Mmm hmm. Note that this only applies to smartphones purchased from AT&T or a dealer of course, so those of you who opt for unlocked handsets should be unaffected. Hit the jump for the internal email circulated today at AT&T.

From The Boy Genius Blog

That is after shooting at it constantly over the last year. Is the idea of a smartphone plan bad? Certainly not. But the fact is having to get both a voice and data plan for the smartphone IS. But that is where they are headed.

I’ll point right back to “Who’s on First, or When Oligarchies Collide” a previous post. There are players coming on line that are not making a distinction between data and voice. They will be treating it all as data. That some of it is VoIP services is of no consequence to them. The Verizon’s and AT&T’s will learn that soon enough. American’s love simplicity. That and VoIP has a large enough presence now that consumers tend to expect it in lieu of a landline. It would be a natural extension to expect to use it in their handhelds.

The cell boys have to come to that realization and soon. Its all data now.

Linky.