With the whole Apple vs Google voice fiasco this week, the battle lines between traditional telephony providers and VOIP services has been drawn. To recap the situation, Google has recently launched a service known as “Google Voice” that allows you to claim your own personal number and then route your calls over a data network rather than a voice network, using a technology known as “Voice over IP” or “VOIP. The beauty of VOIP in the first world is that data is dirt cheap (or at least cheaper than a normal voice line) and you can call other VOIP numbers for free.
The problem with the iPhone Google Voice client (and in my opinion is why the app was pulled) is that when you buy an iPhone in the United States you get an unlimited data plan. Essentially you could have used the Google Voice App to make phone calls and even send SMS’s to both Google Voice and normal cell users at a fraction of the price. This money lost by the cell carrier that provides the iPhone, AT&T, is a huge issue as not only will it put a strain on their data networks but also lose them a fortune of revenue that is usually used to justify the apparently large monthly payment to Apple. If Apple allowed the Google Voice application in their store, millions of dollars would have been lost by AT&T and one of their major strategic partners in probably their biggest sales market would have been lost. Even if you take into account the massive amount of negative PR they are receiving from this incident, it’s a mere fraction of what they stand to lose if AT&T is no longer a partner.
The thing is, we should have seen this coming. VOIP service Skype has had an iPhone application for months although it is severely neutered in the sense that it only allows for calls to be made when on a Wi-fi network. The question is thus: Should AT&T or Apple be justifiably worried about VOIP services or should a hardware provider not pander to the needs of a monolith such as AT&T? The simple fact is that VOIP will become the future as the technology matures.
In my opinion I’ve been using a VOIP service like Skype for quite a while now and until the latest release of Skype (which is amazing) the tech has been quite immature. If dropped calls or not being able to hear what on earth the person you’re speaking to annoys you while using a cellphone then VOIP was a whole new level of annoying. With that having changed what we need now is for a cell data connection not to drain even the strongest batteries in less than a day.
The cell network industry is on the way out in the same way that T.V. and print media is suffering from the painful agony of redundancy. I say hurry up with an easily accessible and cheaper form of connectivity so we can all just move on and even the great and venerated Apple cannot stop the rush of VOIP connectivity.
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