You might recall the big stink raised last year after Apple banned Google Voice from the application store. AT&T and Apple of course played dumb to suggestions that either acted anti-competitively to block an application that poses a significant threat to both the old telco or phone OS business models.

With Uncle Sam sniffing around Apple on numerous fronts, Apple recently eased iPhone developer restrictions and now it appears that the official Google Voice app will finally be arriving on the iPhone. According to Techcrunch, the app has actually already been approved and will pop up soon:

…we’ve gotten word that the official Google Voice application is on its way to the iPhone in the next few weeks. In fact, we’ve heard from a source close to Google that it’s already been approved Google just needs to revamp the application to work with the iPhone 4 and iOS’s multitasking capabilities. If you’re a Google Voice user and you’re on an iPhone, this is great news.

As already explored at length, applications like Google Voice are going to speed up the death of concepts like SMS and voice minutes, given that things like mobile VoIP and push IM make them irrelevant. With reduction in that revenue, carriers like AT&T and Verizon are eagerly looking forward to jacking up mobile data costs with new low cap, high overage data plans.

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Given their decision to milk copper and stick with VDSL, AT&T is continually juggling last mile bandwidth capacity, managing user demand for HDTV streams, broadband and voice using compression and prioritization (as in: reducing your Internet speed if your entire house starts watching HD programming). Aside from their inability to match cable’s 50-100 Mbps service speeds, the company has done fairly well at this balancing act offering top speeds of 24/3 Mbps, while also offering 3 HD streams.

Those three streams will soon be four:

Speaking at the event, held in Newport Beach, California, Stankey tried to dispel early concerns about whether AT&T had enough capacity to fuel its IPTV service, announcing that the company intends to introduce four HD streams per home by the end of the year, up from the current three, thanks to a combo of more efficient compression and more bandwidth.

As noted in July, that additional bandwidth is coming courtesy of VDSL channel bonding, which allows AT&T to offer slightly more bandwidth at an additional 1-2,000 feet from the VRAD using additional copper pairs. However, AT&T’s putting that additional bandwidth toward video, not user data speeds. AT&T says being unable to meet cable speed tiers faster than 24 Mbps down 3 Mbps up is ok, since most people don’t buy it anyway:

While AT&T has found the capacity to beef up its managed IPTV service, Stankey downplayed the company’s positioning against DOCSIS 3.0-based cable modem services, which typically outpace U-verse’s top tier. He questioned whether there’s much demand for D3 speeds. “The fact of the matter is we sell 18- and 24-meg products. The bulk of our customers choose not to buy that,” he said, noting that most see the value in AT&T’s 6-Mbit/s tier.

Stankey omits AT&T’s specific weakness at offering upstream bandwidth (their website likes to do that too), or the fact that millions of distance-constrained or un-upgraded AT&T customers only have the choice of 6 Mbps, which is magically why so many AT&T customers choose it.

Of course today’s power user is tomorrow’s average user – and come tomorrow – AT&T’s still going to have to find a way to increase speeds further. Barring getting into rocket pigeon connectivity, they’ll either have to finally bite the bullet and install last mile fiber (which investors won’t approve because it requires waiting for returns), or keep their fingers crossed that some of these ultra-fast DSL variants being cooked up in the Alcatel Lucent labs (though still distance constrained) arrive sooner rather than later.

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Verizon’s “exclusive” agreement with Skype has created a Skype client that has a number of quirky restrictions including the fact that it eats your wireless minutes in some instances (conveniently keeping voice minutes relevant in the age of smartphone mobile VoIP).

But Skype’s specialized Verizon application also had a fairly nasty bug: Android users who used the Skype app over 3G couldn’t turn on Wi-Fi at all.

In other words, they couldn’t use Skype on 3G and browse the Internet via Wi-Fi. At the time, Verizon gave a roundabout explanation, admitting there was a bug, but also insisting that CALEA wiretap restrictions were partially to blame for the problem, as the Verizon-specific app runs over Verizon’s traditional voice network. Whatever the cause, Verizon and Skype have apparently figured it out, and Skype for Verizon smartphones now works with Wi-Fi turned on.

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Despite a few hiccups, Google’s launch of VoIP integration for Gmail has gone rather smoothly, with the company stating they placed over one million phone calls (about one out of every 3,000 phone calls made that day) the first day the service was live. According to Google, more than 200 million people worldwide are active Gmail users, and all of the company’s users in the U.S. now have access to this new functionality. Google is allowing users to make free calls to either the U.S. or Canada at least until the end of the year, hoping to ramp up adoption quickly as they take aim at Skype and Skype’s 560 million registered (124 million active) users.

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As noted back in January, MagicJack was gearing up to offer a new femtocell product that will allow users to make cheap calls using a GSM-based mobile phone. There’s still very limited technical details about the product, outside of the fact it detects a compatible phone within eight feet of the USB femtocell device, and allows users to make VoIP calls with it.

Back in January MagicJack said the device was supposed to go on sale right around now (present time) for somewhere between $20-$40.

More recently the company started telling blogs that the product is still expected to come out this year but with a new wrinkle: the company’s partnering with an as-yet-unnamed mobile carrier. Except given the technology is GSM based, here in the States obviously the company would have to partner either with AT&T or T-Mobile.

But according to a new article by Peter Svensson of the AP, the project is now “on hold” as finding that partner has apparently proven difficult:

Borislow said plans for the device are now on hold. The device had to use low signal power levels to get around legal restrictions on the use of licensed spectrum, but that also shortened the range and reduced sound quality. He’s now looking for a carrier partner that would allow him to turn the power up.

In other words, neither AT&T or T-Mobile were interested in promoting a technology that could cannibalize their own business models. Of course MagicJack creator Dan Borislow has something else cooked up: he’s launching a software version of MagicJack this week called MagicTalk that offers free calls to landlines or cellphones in the U.S. or Canada.

Link to the original article…

AT&T’s second quarter earnings are out, and despite “Antennagate” and network coverage criticism, the company still managed to activate a whopping 3.2 million Apple iPhones during the quarter. Overall, the company added 1.6 million wireless subscribers (896,000 of those were not phones but embedded devices like e-Readers) for the quarter, to reach 90.1 million total wireless connections. AT&T saw a 27.2 percent growth in wireless data revenues, up $936 million from last year and their new data pricing only really just kicked in.

AT&T added a net 209,000 U-verse TV subscribers for the quarter, totaling 2.5 million. That said, AT&T overall lost about 92,000 total broadband customers, given they lost 347,000 traditional DSL customers, some to U-Verse upgrades, some to competitors. AT&T’s broadband quarter wasn’t a particularly great one, something AT&T attributes to “seasonal” slowdown, but also because competitors in non U-Verse markets are becoming “more aggressive with promotions.”

In other words, users tired of slow and expensive DSL service are upgrading to cable. AT&T hopes to counter this with bonded VDSL, which will extend U-Verse’s reach to 30 million potential users. But the fact that cable is kicking AT&T around in legacy DSL markets is kind of amusing given all the investor pressure on AT&T to skimp on network upgrades. By lamenting telco network upgrades (be they FTTH or FTTN), Wall Street stock jocks like Craig Moffett wind up helping cable companies.

On their earnings conference call, AT&T dribbled out a few interesting tidbits including the fact that their LTE trials will be starting in just a few months, with the service made available to AT&T customers sometime in 2011. The company also noted that they’ve been working hard to improve network performance in their trouble markets like New York City, where they claim dropped calls are down 23% in Manhattan while 3G speeds are up 31% the last six months. San Francisco upgrades are about 90 days behind NYC upgrades, says AT&T.

As for AT&T’s decision to impose low 200 MB and 2 GB caps on wireless smartphone users during the quarter, AT&T’s CFO Rick Lindner called the results “pretty encouraging.” Interestingly, AT&T says fewer people than they expected downgraded from unlimited to 200MB and 2GB capped plans. “To be honest we had expected virtually all of those customers to migrate down to a lower price point.” Perhaps because low caps and high overages (plus fees) isn’t really a lower price point?

Regardless, AT&T acknowledged their new tiered pricing (which Verizon is expected to mimic later this month) “may reduce the growth rate in the next year.” T-Mobile, Clearwire and Sprint certainly hope so.

Of course rumbling beneath all of this talk about wireless is AT&T’s continued loss of traditional landline voice customers and associated revenues, which AT&T happily insists saw their “smallest year-over-year decline in five quarters.” AT&T saw their wireline voice total (and they include U-Verse Voice in that total) drop to 44.3 million from 46.3 million on the quarter. Those continued losses mean continued layoffs at the company this year.

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As noted back in January, Magic Jack is gearing up to offer a new femtocell product that will allow users to make cheap calls using a GSM based mobile phone. There’s still very limited technical details about the product, outside of the fact it detects a compatible phone within eight feet of the USB femto device, and allows users to make VoIP calls with it.

Back in January Magic Jack said the device was supposed to go on sale right around now for somewhere between $20-$40. Now the company is telling blogs that the product is still expected to come out this year but with a new wrinkle: the company’s partnering with an as-yet-unnamed mobile carrier. Given T-Mobile and AT&T are the only GSM carriers, it’s either one of them, or one of the prepaid carriers riding on one of those two networks.

Link to the original article…

Callpod, the makers of cellphone accessories like the Chargepod have announced their own long-range Bluetooth 2.0 headsets:

The Onyx and Vetro Bluetooth® headsets both offer a 164 ft (50m) range, which allows users to extend the boundaries of traditional headsets. It allows users to roam around the office or home without being tethered to their cell phone. The Onyx and Vetro can also simultaneously connect to your PC or Mac for Skype® calls, allowing you to switch between your computer and mobile phone with a press of a button. In addition, the headsets have advanced dual-mic noise suppression™, which allows callers on the other end of the call to enjoy a strong clear voice even if the user is in the car, airport, restaurant or at the office.

The Onyx and Vetro can be used with other Vetro, Onyx or Dragon V2 headsets for two-way or push to talk communication over a 84,000+ sq ft space. The new headset takes about 3 hours to fully charge via USB port or outlet and provides up to 5 hours talk time and over 120 hours on standby.

Armed with good looks and extended range as well as noise-suppression, the Onyx and Vetro are also priced aggressively too. The Onyx is currently available for $69.95 and the Vetro is currently available for $99.95. Both are compatible with all Bluetooth-enabled mobile phones, PDAs VoIP products and computers.

[ Links: Callpod ]

AT&T’s Microcell service, which uses a femtocell service to extend in-home cellular connectivity (by allowing users to make calls over broadband) appears to have had a rocky launch. Posts to the official AT&T forum indicate that a significant number of users struggled to get their units activated last week, and while AT&T says those problems are fixed, other users appear to be struggling with issues like voice latency as well. Of course the femtocell sector has been eager to see the femtocell idea take off but carriers have seemingly done their best to constrain this growth through pricing models that forget to offer consumer value. If you’re interested in the technology (at least through AT&T) you may want to wait a little longer for the kinks to be worked out.

Link to the original article…

It was noted how AT&T’s Microcell femtocell service was already a dubious value proposition given the device, intended to improve in-home cell coverage by routing voice and data calls over broadband, involves users paying AT&T to help ease congestion on local towers. Not only does routing calls over your broadband service result in you eating your minutes, but it also now appears that using 3G at home eats away at your caps.

That’s absurd, given that both voice and 3G over the device uses the user’s bandwidth – and not precious backhaul resources.

AT&T’s been making the rounds trying to give an explanation for why they made the decision to make their Microcell service an even worse value, but the explanations so far aren’t making sense.

“3G MicroCell is primarily intended to enhance the voice call quality experience in your home,” AT&T’s Seth Bloom tells us. “While it can carry mobile data traffic, that’s not the primary solution it provides,” he says. “Wi-Fi is the optimal solution for home mobile data use. We encourage people to take advantage of Wi-Fi capabilities – that’s why all of our smartphones include Wi-Fi radios, and usage on Wi-Fi doesn’t count against your mobile data usage bucket.”

Customers will probably decide to use their Wi-Fi connection when in the home. That still doesn’t explain why AT&T lets the service eat 3G bandwidth caps should they use 3G. In that case, the traffic’s being routed over the exact same broadband connection as Wi-Fi. Whether users should use 3G over the Microcell in the home when Wi-Fi’s available isn’t the point. The service still shouldn’t be eating your wireless caps just like femtocells shouldn’t eat your voice minutes.

Bloom goes on to insist that the Microcell “uses our core wireless network just like a call placed while driving down the highway uses the core wireless network.” “The only difference is how that data or call gets there via a MicroCell connected to a wired broadband connection instead of a cell tower.”

Again though, you’re not using AT&T’s tower or their backhaul, you’re using your own already-paid-for bandwidth. AT&T’s entire justification for their new low caps and overages is backhaul and tower congestion (though even that’s dubious – simple profit is the more likely motivation) – and congestion’s not an issue here. Sure, there’s costs involved, but they’re minor compared to the costs of traditional wireless connectivity.

Consider these are users shelling out for a home broadband connection, a wireless 3G and data connection, possibly an added landline connection, the upfront cost of hardware and an additional $20 if they want unlimited voice that doesn’t eat away at their minutes. Just how much are we expecting the average consumer to pay per month for simple, regular-use voice and data connectivity?

Either AT&T’s gunning to make an additional few million annually in revenue off of those incapable of differentiating between 3G and Wi-Fi, or they’re incapable of getting the Wi-Fi/3G femtocell billing straightened out and don’t want to admit it.

Some might think this is all rather nerdy semantics, but these are important questions when exploring how carriers seem to be sucking all the value out of the femtocell with absurd pricing decisions and other penalties – especially when the femtocell helps the carrier more than it does you.

Link to the original article…

Earlier this year Skype unveiled an “exclusive” arrangement with Verizon that involved releasing a somewhat-limited version of Skype for Verizon phones which in some cases eats user minutes, seemingly defeating some benefits of Skype. It was widely speculated that as part of the arrangement, Skype slowed their development of Skype for other platforms – though now they’ve finally released a version of Skype for the Apple iPhone. Unfortunately for users, this version too seems to have some odd restrictions:

iPhone users can make free Skype-to-Skype calls for the rest of the year but after that will have to pay a small, monthly subscription fee. Perhaps even more disconcerting for Skype users, the app – at least initially – apparently does not support background push notifications, meaning users must have the app up and running to receive incoming Skype calls.

These restrictions seem to be custom-made to help AT&T avoid the erosion of SMS and voice revenues in the face of smartphones, push IM clients and mobile VoIP. Of course it remains amusing that Skype keeps striking these kinds of restrictive, closed agreements with companies like AT&T and Verizon – after spending a large chunk of the last five years complaining about closed networks.

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Time Warner Cable, AT&T and CenturyLink/Embarq’s latest attempt (they’ve been trying since 2005) to pass a bill in North Carolina that would hinder communities interested in wiring themselves with fiber – seems to be seeing some opposition in the state. The Senate Finance Committee on Wednesday postponed considering the new law, which opponents say is little more than protectionism – intentionally layering projects like Wilson’s Greenlight fiber service (funded with private money) with bureaucratic obstacles. In an editorial last week, the Winston-Salem Journal put it this way:

These communities can’t wait until it will be profitable for a private company to serve them adequately. So, using the democratic process, they are asking their local governments to establish service for them. This is reminiscent of the early 20th century when small towns in this state developed their own electrical grids rather than wait for the big utilities to do so. If the telecoms don’t want local governments to establish these Internet services, they should rush into these areas and establish service now.

Of course dozens of these kinds of bills were passed over the last decade before many people realized what carriers were doing – namely refusing to serve areas (either with next-generation broadband or broadband of any kind) – then pushing for laws that would ban them from serving themselves.

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