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AT&T to Allow Skype and Google Voice to Operate on Its Mobile Network?
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Hopefully they'll allow the Google Voice application. I have no interest in Skype or any other VoIP service. But Google Voice is actually usable without an application. The App would just make it even more useful and easy to access. Particularly if it offers text messaging notifications via Push. I can drop $20/mo on my phone bill just with that.
Hey what do you know...
Right after Verizon announces its partnership with Google, bringing 2 new Android devices to their network, "there's a map for that" commercial, and Verizon saying it will support Google Voice outright...we hear a rumor that At&t is considering it. Well let's hope so considering everyone else is offering GV.
There's talk, which is funny because this seems obvious that they had a hand in the apps rejection.
I would keep playing catch up At&t, it's working well for your customers.
Right after Verizon announces its partnership with Google, bringing 2 new Android devices to their network, "there's a map for that" commercial, and Verizon saying it will support Google Voice outright...we hear a rumor that At&t is considering it. Well let's hope so considering everyone else is offering GV.
There's talk, which is funny because this seems obvious that they had a hand in the apps rejection.
I would keep playing catch up At&t, it's working well for your customers.
It amazes me how smart people sometimes don't realize that nothing in life is free. Everybody wants free Internet, free phone service, free TV, free this, free that. Who pays for the infrastructure? Which business invests money into something if it is not going to make profit on it and it is expected to just give it away for free? No business can make money giving stuff away. We all saw that in the big dotcom bubble bust. All the wonderful give everything away business models. But people still think that they are doing a great thing by dropping their voice plan minutes and using their unlimited data plan to make free voip calls. Gee! when we have enough people doing this your free voip calls aren't going to work either.
How much money is Google investing in infrastructure?? Gee! ZERO!!! How much money is Netflix investing in Infrastructure?? Gee! ZERO!! How about Skype? Let me guess ZERO!!! But they think they can all hog bandwidth for free and make money while communications companies are investing billions on data networks. Verizon, AT&T etc. spend a fortune laying the optical fibre lines and connecting homes to the Internet. The money that we pay these companies for Broadband service whatever it is $20-$30 a month nowhere near covers the costs if everybody starts hogging bandwidth. The same people will complain that the network is slow. Gee I wonder why the network is slow?? No matter how much bandwidth these companies add there will be ever increasing demand because the likes of Google will use this bandwidth for free and make a fortune. This can only be sustained for so long. NetNeutrality will only result in us going back to the stone age and progress will come to a standstill. But everything will be FREE!!!
How much money is Google investing in infrastructure?? Gee! ZERO!!! How much money is Netflix investing in Infrastructure?? Gee! ZERO!! How about Skype? Let me guess ZERO!!! But they think they can all hog bandwidth for free and make money while communications companies are investing billions on data networks. Verizon, AT&T etc. spend a fortune laying the optical fibre lines and connecting homes to the Internet. The money that we pay these companies for Broadband service whatever it is $20-$30 a month nowhere near covers the costs if everybody starts hogging bandwidth. The same people will complain that the network is slow. Gee I wonder why the network is slow?? No matter how much bandwidth these companies add there will be ever increasing demand because the likes of Google will use this bandwidth for free and make a fortune. This can only be sustained for so long. NetNeutrality will only result in us going back to the stone age and progress will come to a standstill. But everything will be FREE!!!
I doubt it.
VOIP to Skype is a nice feature to have (E.g., I need to make many international calls), but for the vast majority of people, it's not practical since most contacts use regular phones. Besides, with free cell-to-cell, night and weekends, and all that stuff your long calls are probably not the issue. It's the small calls to land lines (e.g., being on hold) that add up.
Won't Apple reject that Google Voice formally? AT&T is slick. They know Apple would reject it anyways so they will look like the good guys.
Take a chill pill, for goodness sake.
Telecom companies charge handsomely for data access. My EDGE 2G iPhone barely ever communicates via their data network, so my $20 go pretty much to waste. They offer data services...no...they REQUIRE data services on the iPhone, so the ball is in their court for all I care. It is THEIR responsibility to provide service, for which we pay fair-and-square.
Ah great news! And then if you can just unrestrict Slingplayer and let me pay for tethering... then i'll have no more reasons to jailbreak!
WTF are you talking about? First, without all the companies providing stuff to do over the data lines there would be no need for data in the first place. Second, we all are currently PAYING for our data connection. If ATT can't provide me the bandwidth I pay for then lower the price. Finally, all these telcos are using public airwaves that they have rented. Additionally the government has traditionally given companies like ATT tons of cash and tax breaks so they would expand their network.
Also, your post is totally wrong in it's facts. Google pays a TON for bandwidth. What the telcos want to do is charge Google for it's bandwidth, charge you for your bandwidth and then charge Google again for your bandwidth. That is criminal in my book.
So, in short go learn something before posting again.
Fair and square until you start dropping minutes and start using Skype and using up too much bandwidth. When we have enough people doing this that is when we will have a problem.
Google pays for bandwidth? What bandwidth is Google paying for?? Do you even know what you are talking about?
Many of us here would happily pay for services like tethering, but AT&T restricts this altogether. Many people here just want access, not restrictions - things don't necessarily need to be free.
Seriously? Google is one of the largest owners of internet infrastructure in the world. See here. Do some google searching for even more info.
Step 1 - get your facts straight. Step 2 - calm down.
ATT is very smart. They will save money on crazy termination charges for landlines. If people use Skype or other services, termination charges to landlines will not be ATT's responsibilities. Besides, they make 69.99 on all smartphone accounts anyway. I bet ATT will do similar to Sprint to make mobile-mobile unlimited. They will kill the purpose to use VOIP for mobile-mobile.
They pay for an internet pipe just like anyone else. Their ISP, in turn, pays for their connection, which eventually flows to the owners of the infrastructure being used.
I would venture to say Google pays for a pretty big pipe, too.
As someone who works for a LARGE telecom testing firm that sells VZ/AT&T most of they're test gear, he's got a point, network expansion is REALLY expensive. One of our OC-192 testers loaded up with some physical fiber testing options goes for a quarter of a million, how many $30 dollar data plans do they have to collect to get that back? 8,333 iPhone users pay for one little part needed for the install! And that's just for the equipment to QUALIFY the install! If you include all the parts and labor for towers, switch houses, land line fiber to the data center, repeaters, etc etc, that's a big bill Jack!
That being said, At&t is a lazy, big, cumbersome company that rests on the laurels of the iPhone's runaway success too often. They need to get cracking, Verizon's coverage area KILLS them!
What you need to realize is that Google is getting NOTHING for free. GOOGLE PAYS HUGE AMOUNTS OF MONEY TO CONNECT THEIR DATA CENTERS TO THE INTERNET.
I wrote that with extreme emphasis, because folks like you seem to miss this absolutely critical point continually, in every single debate where net neutrality is mentioned!
Wrong and wrong again! Do you think that Google builds massive data centers all ove the world and gets a FREE internet connection to them? NO! They pay MASSIVE internet bills at each one.
That's closer, as it's P2P-based, but still BOTH peers are paying for their connection. Why can't they use what they paid for?
If that's true then why in the hell would the ISPs be providing it for that cost? Are you calling them idiots?
Net Neutrality has never been about bandwidth. It's about the ISP blocking/slowing whatever types of traffic they feel like. Net Neutrality does NOT stop them from charging for bandwidth used.
Now PLEASE go educate yourself on this topic and stop spreading this false information!
I have gv mobile but in AT&T that mean nonfree calls. Have to wait until contract ends then go to a plan that offers friends and family with Internet. You then add you gv number to that list therefore, all calls are free.
Hope that help explain.
Hope that help explain.
Omg, I can't believe I wasted time responding to this guy.
You guys are totally right. Google pays whatever to connect their data centers to the Internet. Who pays for carrying the traffic and bandwidth from that point on to your house?? Duh?? Is that free?? You think your $20 a month pays for that fat pipe?? Does Google pay Verizon or AT&T or Comcast to pull that high speed fibre line to your door? These companies invest a fortune on this infrastructure so they can recover that money and make some on top of it by selling their own services and content. They don't make a dime off access lines alone. I know that for a fact. Doesn't matter how fat a pipe Google uses to connect their servers to the Internet, if the backbone is clogged up nothing else matters. I think the point you are missing is who pays for carrying that traffic to your house? Google certainly doesn't. I don't work for a telco but I look at these numbers for a living unlike many of you here you just comment based on some Internet articles you read. And I can tell you with a very high degree of confidence that this model of net neutrality where the ISP cannot prioritize packets is not sustainable. It is just a matter of time before we all pay a price for this. And Google knows this very well. In the meantime make hay while the sun shines.