

AT&T to allow 3G Skype calls - Timothee
http://share.skype.com/sites/en/2009/10/good_move_att.html

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staunch
ATT actually loses nothing from me. I'll still use my normal ATT phone service
for all US calls. All this means is that I will call foreign countries from my
cell phone.

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smanek
That's amazing ...

Why would AT&T do this? I no longer need 'minutes' of phone service anymore
(except as a backup when I'm occasionally out of a 3G service area)

~~~
staunch
Perhaps they calculated that it's less risky to open VOIP apps than to
possibly suffer the wrath of the FCC.

~~~
joezydeco
Well, Verizon just put a huge shot across AT&T's bow today by announcing they
would allow Google Voice (and others) on their new Android-based handsets.

[http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2009/10/verizon-android-
phone...](http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2009/10/verizon-android-phones/)

~~~
stcredzero
A shot across the bow is fine. The folks who put together the phone still have
to _execute_. Hopefully this will shape AT&T up.

~~~
joezydeco
Very true. Verizon could be all talk at this point.

But it's interesting to see the walls starting to come down, slowly as they
are.

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mbowcock
Does this mean Google Voice will be supported as a native iPhone app?

~~~
dschobel
In light of the Vonage app which was approved the other day, I don't see what
possible objection ATT/Apple could have against the Google Voice application.

~~~
steveklabnik
If the Vonage app doesn't replace the native dialer, then it's certainly
possible that it could have been approved while GV hasn't been.

Remember: it's not an objection to VOIP in general. It's an objection to the
replacement of core iPhone functionality.

EDIT: Hey everybody. I'm just repeating what Apple said. The GV announcement
said nothing about VOIP, it just said "replacement of core functionality."
Thanks.

~~~
gloob
_Remember: it's not an objection to VOIP in general. It's an objection to the
replacement of core iPhone functionality._

Perhaps I'm just old-fashioned, but I would have thought that the piece of
software in the iPhone that makes it usable as a phone would be closer to
"core functionality" than the dialer. VOIP is definitely treading on the
former, though how it deals with the latter is obviously a question of
interface rather than of protocol.

~~~
alnayyir
Conceptualizations of what constitutes core functionality in products and
software have become increasingly shallow and less feature focused. I don't
know if this is because of a somewhat less "business" driven mindset, or
because Apple is absolutely brimming with UI freaks, but the mentality seems
to at present be that the _imitation_ of a dialer in _software_ rather than
the actual _ability_ to make calls is what is most important to "protect".

I appreciate Apple's attempts maintain integrity in the UI interface but their
hysterics over something like this make me wary.

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jrockway
FWIW, Skype over AT&T 3G has worked for many years on Windows Mobile. Or... it
did 2 years ago when I last used it.

~~~
nfriedly
Ditto.

I also made a skype call from my laptop via a tethered cellphone and the
quality was noticeably better: the cpu speed of the phone was more of a
limiting factor than the 3g data speed.

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laut
Question: With the Skype-app on the iPhone can you be online on Skype even
after you lock the screen or go to another app?

If you want to online on Skype on the iPhone so that people can call or
message you even when you are using SMS or doing something else. Is this
possible? At least on wifi?

~~~
jsz0
Not possible without jailbreaking.

~~~
godDLL
AIM does just that, albeit they ping you with badges/notifications when you
get a message, which wouldn't quite work with calls. But you could always call
back, or be "away". Nothing is stopping Skype from making that happen.

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padmanabhan01
One benefit is I no longer have to use my minutes to call 1800 #s. like cust
service etc

~~~
ErrantX
I was going to ask if you guys have a similar site to
<http://www.saynoto0870.co.uk> that turns premium numbers into local phone
numbers for standard rate calls.

But I found it.

<http://www.saynoto1890.com/>

The UK version of that has saved me _crap loads_ in customer service call
costs.

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acg
Good for them, good decision. There are other international operators that run
skype and it is really useful.

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datums
If you have a sip account you can use fring to make voip calls.

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darjen
I use Gizmo5 on my e71 over 3g. Better and cheaper than Skype.

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lpgauth
So what's your point?

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sahaj
i wonder if this has anything to do with keeping the iphone exclusivity?
verizon today also announced that they will be supporting android devices.

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arithmetic
FCC would have ruled AT&T to do this anyway.

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chrischen
Too bad skype text chat is unreliable.

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jhancock
less reliable than international SMS?

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mmelin
Yes, definitely. The failure rate of Skype text chats, especially group chats
with many participants, is astonishing.

International SMS is quite reliable, depending on destination country and
routing.

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trezor
I think the technically correct term would be "no longer actively blocks".

