Related: The Eyes and Ears of the Web
I won't be buying.
"Skype moves in on cellphone industry" by Hiawatha Bray, Globe Staff | April 9, 2009
Technology has a way of eroding corporate empires; ask anybody in the newspaper business.
(You can't see the smile on my face, but it's there)
Now the cellular phone industry is getting a taste of the same medicine. By installing new software on their smartphones, consumers are hooking up to alternative phone services and bypassing their cell carriers. It isn't an entirely new trend, but it may have reached a tipping point on March 31. That's when the Internet-based telephone service Skype introduced a version of its software that runs on the popular Apple iPhone.
You've probably heard of Skype, a program written by Estonian hackers and later bought by Internet auction house eBay for $2.6 billion. People around the world use it to talk to each other free of charge over their Internet-linked computers. Skype also offers connections to traditional phone services at dirt-cheap prices.
Except.... (keep reading)
For example, Skype calls to any phone number in the United States cost 2.1 cents per minute. But it's mainly a hit with international callers, because the service's prices for overseas calls beat standard phone company rates. My wife pays Skype about 21 cents a minute to chat with her relatives in Congo, while AT&T charges 59 cents a minute.
But what good is Skype on a cellphone? Wouldn't you still have to burn cellular minutes to use it? Not if your phone has built-in Wi-Fi wireless networking. Then Skype could relay calls over the Internet, with no help from the phone company....
As with most iPhone programs, setting up Skype is a trivial matter. You'll need to create a user name and password, and use a credit card to buy calling minutes. And of course, you must be connected to an open Wi-Fi hotspot. Then, start dialing. I found call quality to be surprisingly clear, even when using a fairly weak Wi-Fi signal....
On the downside, the iPhone generally runs just one application at a time. So if you want to receive an incoming Skype call, it must be running on the iPhone at all times. No Web surfing for you. Fring promises to change this, with a new feature that's supposed to notify users of incoming calls or text messages even when the software is shut off. But try as I might, I couldn't get this feature to work.
Even if you could receive incoming calls, to do so requires purchasing a separate phone number from Skype for $60 a year. Then there's the matter of voicemail. Traditional cell companies throw it in at no additional charge; with Skype, it's $20 a year. You'll get voicemail free of charge and a phone number for half off if you buy a monthly Skype subscription, starting at $2.95 a month for unlimited calls to any phone in the United States. Not bad.
I thought the damn thing as free?
Now I'm shelling out over $120 dollars for something that doesn't really work?
But remember, you can only place your Skype calls when you have access to a Wi-Fi hotspot. And that could mean lots of headaches for Apple and AT&T Corp., the cellular carrier with exclusive US rights to offer the iPhone.
I think I've got one now.
Remember, the iPhone uses AT&T's 3G cellular data network, which is easily capable of handling Skype phone calls, and is available in most of the nation's major cities. IPhone users pay $30 a month for unlimited use of the network for surfing the Internet or reading e-mail. But they could just as easily use it to place Skype calls at 2.1 cents per minute, instead of using the AT&T voice network, which charges up to four times as much.
So it's no surprise that AT&T and Apple bar Internet telephone software that uses the 3G network. Skype and other Internet-phone services must be Wi-Fi-only, a crippling limitation that has infuriated Internet activists.
It's called PROTECTING PROFITS, right?
The lobbying group Free Press argues that the iPhone policy violates the principle of network neutrality, which says all Internet-based services should be treated alike....
And let us NEVER LOSE THAT, readers, or you will probably be unable to connect to this blog.
The Obama administration has proclaimed its support for network neutrality....
Then I WILL HOLD HIM to THAT PROMISE!!!
He's broken so many others....
That means the explosive popularity of Skype for the iPhone, along with a hard shove from the FCC, could force the cellular industry to open its network to a host of rivals. Could Sprint Nextel Inc. offer a voice service over the AT&T 3G network, or vice versa? Why not? Sure, the cell companies will resist the idea, like newspaper publishers cursing Google. And look at how that's turned out.
:-)
See: The Decline and Fall of the Boston Globe
Boston Globe Taking Down New York Times
--more--"
Cell Phone Spying: Is Your Life Being Monitored?
Get Spied on For Free!!!
