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AT&T to Allow Skype and Google Voice to Operate on Its Mobile Network?
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Not from what I have read no - you still use your minutes. However I can't say with absolute authority since its a beta product and I have yet to be invited.
In the end, whether anyone likes it or not, the carriers are going to end up having to leverage the one thing they have that is of value. The network. AT&T ought to be busting their asses to catch up to Verizon, because if they were forced to compete without an exclusive handset with their network, they'd be so screwed.
Because whoever has the best network to handle all this dumb data(sorry, dumb data network is inevitable) is going to be the big winner among carriers.
The carriers can keep gripping to some kind of fantasy world where they think they're providing value to users with this V Cast nonsense, crippling devices and whatnot...but their specialty is not content. So they best stop worrying about juicing us for a drip of every little piece of content...and worry about their networks being up-to-snuff to handle all this data.
I'm willing to pay a fair price for that dumb-data pipeline, and I would be happy to use what I pay for, in whatever way I want.
Because whoever has the best network to handle all this dumb data(sorry, dumb data network is inevitable) is going to be the big winner among carriers.
The carriers can keep gripping to some kind of fantasy world where they think they're providing value to users with this V Cast nonsense, crippling devices and whatnot...but their specialty is not content. So they best stop worrying about juicing us for a drip of every little piece of content...and worry about their networks being up-to-snuff to handle all this data.
I'm willing to pay a fair price for that dumb-data pipeline, and I would be happy to use what I pay for, in whatever way I want.
Google Voice uses your cell minutes.
Google Voice is NOT I repeat NOT a VOIP service.
Google voice act more like a forwarding service. Some one dails you GV number and it will ring your cell phone, home phone and work (or what ever numbers you tell it to). You answer it connects you call.
GV was block by apple. AT&T does not give a damn about GV because it still uses plan minutes.
The only way GV can save you money is if you use it as one of you A-list numbers because it will be free for all calls (all incoming and out going from the same number)
Oh and yes I do have a GV number and the app on my Blackberry. It works great.
Thanks.
Wonder if Google will force me to listen to an ad before the call is connected.
Google Voice can save you money on texting, but even then it's easier to have it forward you texts to your normal texting plan, still using AT&T texts. Really the only way AT&T loses is if they have a 'friends and family' plan and you make your GV number one of your 'free' (doesn't use minutes) numbers. In that scenario, all your calls could be free.
Now we will have an interesting situation. If Apple approves the app, then we know that AT&T was the one holding things up and being wienies. But if Apple continues to reject the app, then we know it was Apple.
For some reason, my bet is that AT&T is the bad guy in this. But we will see.
Why lower it at all? Just cancel the voice plan. The next logical step would be for users to demand a data only plan, no voice calls. Why have the ability to make voice calls of you're going to use Skype or Vonage for that purpose? Of course if enough people did that then the carrier (at&t, verizon, etc.) would have to raise the price of the data plan to recoup the lost revenue from voice plans that were canceled. It's a slippery slope but one thing is certain, the companies are going to get the revenue from somewhere. Nothing is free. The customer will pay one way or the other. If you plan to use Skype for your voice calls then expect higher data plan rates.
This has already happened with DSL. Originally DSL was offered only as lineshare service. You got dialtone and DSL on the same line. Now at&t offers DSL without the dialtone, and guess what, the DSL only service costs more than the DSL+Dialtone. The same will apply for data only 3G service.
Maybe this is about getting ahead of any FCC action on net neutrality. Maybe it's about leveling the playing field a bit on the heels of Verizon and Google's announcement.
But I think it's really all about keeping their exclusivity with Apple next year. Tethering will be next to get added. (If not streaming video from Sling or Netflix over 3G.)
But I think it's really all about keeping their exclusivity with Apple next year. Tethering will be next to get added. (If not streaming video from Sling or Netflix over 3G.)
I would be MORE THAN HAPPY to pay like $50/month for unlimited mobile data with an iPhone. I'd even pay full price for the iPhone. And be able to use that data pipeline however I want. How this hasn't happened yet, is totally beyond me.
I pay $25/month for the same unlimited pipeline at home...seems paying double for mobile would be pretty fair. It just makes too much sense, that's why it hasn't happened yet.
Could not agree more. That's why I think ATT, Comcast, Qwest, etc. are scared to death of the internet. They all would be soooo screwed if a company with really deep pockets, say maybe $20 - 40 billion dollars or more came along and built a nationwide, high speed data network from the ground up.
Glad someone finally brought this up. I'm totally willing to go the "dumb pipe" route as soon as I can figure out how to do it. I think Skype/GV is a good start, but I'm not sure of the direction to take with it all.
last i checked, the cheapest phone plan was $40 and unlimited data was $30, so for $70 you can get what you were "more than happy" to pay for at $50. and if you were willing to pay full price for the iphone, you could get the subsidized rate and with the $200-300 savings, you could pay the $20 monthly difference (discussed above) for well over the next year. so actually, what you want does exist but not in the box you imagined (data with no wireless service).
just a thought...
Umm you are incorrect on this. Yes at first it was that way but now DSL cost the same weather or not you have land line service.
I had ATT DSL for over a year, with no land line. Same cost. The only cost saving I got was installing it for free because I also order ATT uverse TV.
i, too, am waiting to see how the Google Voice app gets handled in all of this.
my biggest desire for having google voice interface flawlessly with the iphone is its ability to block numbers. this would be so useful for me - esp in my line of work as a physician - and allow me to protect my cell number less tightly. now, i only give out my vonage or google voice numbers and allow them to funnel to my cell.
Does the following suggest the situation we're in? Suppose your electric company established service for $20-$30/month, and everyone is using light bulbs and a TV. Then outside vendors sell us refrigerators, and air conditioning systems, and electric ranges (you get the idea) and we hook all those up to the infrastructure. Think the electric company's still gonna succeed with that $20-$30 service charge? Are prices gonna have to go up? Or will we have brownouts and find our ice cream melted? Or...?
(I'm asking: is that a fair analogy?)
A key quote seems to be:
"The change means that iPhone users can now use Skype and other Internet phone services on AT&T's 3G network."
How literally are we to take that "now"?