wireless terms of serviceSighting AT&T's senior executives suggestion that device manufactures (read Apple) not allowing Skype -- a Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) application that competes with AT&T, over it's 3G network, Free Press Advocacy Group has requested FCC to look into the practices of Apple and AT&T. Net Neutrality should be applied to every medium of internet connectivity, not what carriers and vendors choose.
The new Skype for iPhone, which has been downloaded more than a million times, works only on Wi-Fi, not the cellular or 3G network.
AT&T spokesperson Jim Cicconi, has stated that, "We absolutely expect our vendors" — Apple, in this case — "not to facilitate the services of our competitors, Skype is a competitor, just like Verizon or Sprint or T-Mobile," "Skype has no obligation to market AT&T services. Why should the reverse be true?"
But it is not skype, but consumers that hand over heafty fees for th services and phones. I think they have rights and that is what the free press advocacy group is questioning about.
The group also suggests that AT&T's recent change to its wireless terms of service to prohibit "customer initiated redirection of television or other video or audio signals via any technology from a fixed location to a mobile device" which AT&T hastily changed again, is a pre-emptive strike against innovative mobile video technologies.
"Wireless broadband networks cannot become a safe haven for discrimination," said Chris Riley, policy counsel of Free Press. "The Internet in your pocket should be just as free and open as the Internet in your home. The FCC must make it crystal clear that a closed Internet will not be tolerated on any platform."
You can find the letter to FCC here: http://www.freepress.net/files/Wireless_IPS_letter.pdf
The Free press press release is here.
Yes Open up AT&T!
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