Apple has an exclusive deal with AT&T in the U.S., stirring up rumors that AT&T was the one behind Apple rejecting Google Voice. How could AT&T not object? AT&T clings to the old business of charging for voice calls in minutes. It takes not much more than 10 kilobits per second of data to handle voice. In a world of megabit per-second connections, that’s nothing—hence Google’s proposal to offer voice calls for no cost and heap on features galore.
What this episode really uncovers is that AT&T is dying. AT&T is dragging down the rest of us by overcharging us for voice calls and stifling innovation in a mobile data market critical to the U.S. economy.
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Some might say it is time to rethink our national communications policy. But even that’s obsolete. I’d start with a simple idea. There is no such thing as voice or text or music or TV shows or video. They are all just data.
Actually, I meant to say “vocal MINORITY”, not “vocal majority”.
My bad.
@MikieV
Do you have any idea how much fiber Google owns? Search on Google and Dark Fiber. The problem with AT&T is it isn’t regulated enough. I blame that on “our” duly elected officials.
To use Google Voice to send SMS you need a browser. The iphone has a browser.
The minimum equipment to make a Google Voice phone call is a phone. The iphone has a phone.
Google Voice works with any phone including the iphone. OK! It doesn’t work with rotary dial types.
Google Voice is NOT VOIP.
AT&T has no reason to care about the app. APPle does.
http://tinyurl.com/mt8l7s
In my area, we have had two weather-related near-catastrophes in the last year: straight-line winds gusting to 70mph (110kph) (remnants of Hurricane Ike) and a disastrous ice storm, both of which brought down tens of thousands of tree branches and whole trees and power and phone lines. Some neighborhoods were without power for over a week at a time. Our phone line-powered phone worked throughout, even when the cell towers and cable and DSL data stations lost power. How do cell and cable signals compare to the uptime of POTS (Plain Old Telephone Service)? Not well, I’d bet.
AT&T and the other wired phone companies have spent trillions installing and keeping up all that infrastructure; I’d think long and hard before sweeping that all away. Although I agree 100% with the author’s third and fourth points:
3)”End municipal exclusivity deals for cable companies.”
4)”Encourage faster and faster data connections to our homes and phones.”