{"id":278076,"date":"2010-02-04T13:07:09","date_gmt":"2010-02-04T18:07:09","guid":{"rendered":"tag:contentnext.com,2010-02-04:article\/419-att-apple-begin-to-open-up-to-voice-and-video-over-3g"},"modified":"2010-02-04T13:07:09","modified_gmt":"2010-02-04T18:07:09","slug":"att-apple-begin-to-open-up-to-voice-and-video-over-3g","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/278076","title":{"rendered":"AT&T, Apple Begin To Open Up To Voice And Video Over 3G"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Who knows if it is AT&T’s plans to invest heavily in its network, or if it was the federal inquiries into AT&T (NYSE: T<\/a>) or Apple’s practices, but there’s evidence that the two companies are opening up to higher bandwidth apps, including voice and video over the 3G network. <\/p>\n

In the past two days, two companies have announced that their applications, which were previously limited to running over Wi-Fi networks, will be coming soon to the iPhone on AT&T’s 3G network. This morning, AT&T said it will now support Sling Media’s SlingPlayer over 3G, and yesterday, Skype said it will soon release a version of its iPhone VoIP app that will run over 3G.\n<\/p>\n

In a release today<\/a>, AT&T said that it has been testing the Sling Media application since December, and “recently notified Sling Media—as well as Apple (NSDQ: AAPL<\/a>)—that the optimized app can run on its 3G network.” For Skype, it was a slightly different situation. Skype wrote in a blog post yesterday<\/a> that after Apple announced the iPad, it lifted its restriction on calling on 3G, “which is great news.”<\/p>\n

In April 2009, when Skype launched the iPhone app, it became the No. 1 most downloaded application. Of course, carriers worried that the service would eat into their already declining voice revenues—AT&T’s reaction was to restrict the app to Wi-Fi-only (which Apple reinforced). In May 2009, Sling first launch its streaming video player. While it originally was intended for both Wi-Fi and 3G, AT&T changed its terms of service agreement to restrict the app to 3G. The app costs $30. Sling and various consumer groups complained to the FCC about the ban since other applications, like MLB’s live streaming app, did work over 3G, reports the NYTimes<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Perhaps, AT&T was concerned about the regulatory threat, but today it said the delay was more about getting the application to use less data. “Just as we’ve worked with Sling Media in this instance, we look forward to collaborating with other developers so that mobile customers can access a wider, more bandwidth-sensitive, and powerful range of applications in the future,” said Ralph de la Vega, AT&T Mobility’s president and CEO. <\/p>\n

But who knows, maybe the move to be more open is also be linked to AT&T’s confidence in its network? For some time, consumers have been vocal about AT&T’s poor voice and data quality in major cities, like New York and San Francisco. But the carrier has recently come out with aggressive plans that are designed to fix the network. This year, it will spend $18 billion to $19 billion on its networks, which includes spending twice as much on the wireless network as it did last year.\n<\/p>\n

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