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iPhone users may be able to leverage VOIP 3G to cut their monthly bills

Apple began to ease its restrictions on VoIP apps last fall when it approved a Vonage app.  In October AT&T and Apple said that they would eventually be opening 3G data traffic to voice-over IP calls (initially approved apps like the Vonage app were crippled to only work over Wi-Fi connections).  AT&T, which cut its investment its capital costs (network investment) last year basically said its reasoning for banning the traffic for so long was not to try to control customers, but rather to protect its network from being overwhelmed.

Now, the new iPad/iPhone SDK, whose launch coincided with that of the new Apple tablet, has at last made good on this promise, reportedly opening up VoIP over 3G.  The company that broke the news, iCall, now has an updated app available that works with 3G.

ICall CEO Arlo Gilbert cheered the news, stating, "I applaud Apple's decision to allow iCall to extend its functionality beyond Wi-Fi and onto the 3G networks. This heralds a new era for VoIP applications on mobile platforms, especially for iCall and our free calling model. I hope that now more developers will begin using our VoIP as a platform to integrate VoIP into their applications."

Why is VoIP on the iPhone so promising?  Currently, iPhone voice plans from AT&T (in the U.S.) range from $39.99 for up to 450 minutes to $199.99 for up to 6000 minutes.  However, there's a single flat rate $30 fee tacked on for data.  Coupled with Google Voice (which gives you free SMS) you could now use your VoIP apps to cut your monthly bill to around $79.99 a month with unlimited SMS texts and local and long distance calls (sans MMS texts). Of course, fees will likely inflate that figure slightly. [Source: AT&T]

AT&T and Apple were heavily criticized for dragging their feet with iPhone 3G VoIP.  After all, Blackberry phones on AT&T have had access to 3G VoIP for some time now.  Still, for iPhone owners looking to snag the best-selling smart phone at the lowest possible cost, the news of VoIP over 3G being turned on is better late than never.


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The VoIP support is more geared towards LTE
By Lord 666 on 1/28/2010 9:32:30 AM , Rating: 2
While it technically will work, lifting the ban on VoIP apps is setting the stage for LTE adoption.




RE: The VoIP support is more geared towards LTE
By amanojaku on 1/28/2010 9:39:56 AM , Rating: 2
I thought VoIP support was enabled because of the FCC investigation. Last time I checked, AT&T isn't ready for LTE as it hasn't even set a go live date yet. In fact, there are few, if any, towers that support LTE in AT&T's network.


RE: The VoIP support is more geared towards LTE
By Gio6518 on 1/28/2010 10:30:58 AM , Rating: 2
i thought they were doing it to lighten up the congestion on their networks


RE: The VoIP support is more geared towards LTE
By amanojaku on 1/28/2010 10:48:51 AM , Rating: 3
No. The congestion is due to the iPhone, which is used mostly for data access. Moving calls from cell to VoIP doesn't change the fact that the call data is still going over the congested towers. In fact, it's worse. A phone call requires an 8K data channel every second (64kbits/sec DS0). VoIP, being IP encapsulated, takes up WAY more data. Even keepalives during quiet spots in the conversation take up more data using VoIP. There is encoding to reduce line utilization, but VoIP is much bigger than POTS.


RE: The VoIP support is more geared towards LTE
By Lord 666 on 1/28/2010 11:11:57 AM , Rating: 2
Using G.711, VoIP calls consume 80k with headers. Using G.729 compression, the calls can be squeezed down to about 30k of constant connection.

However, what kills any VoIP calls is jitter and latency. As long as jitter is predictable, a longer latency (150ms-1000ms) can be taken care of via buffers. As it stands now, EVDO Rev A is poor for both latency and jitter with LTE being much better.

The iPad is interesting, but holding out for Gen 2 that will have the LTE connection. During a VZW demonstration in December, they showed seven streaming video connections, one webcam conference, and a background ftp download of 2mb all without a hiccup. Very impressive stuff.


RE: The VoIP support is more geared towards LTE
By mcnabney on 1/28/2010 3:12:57 PM , Rating: 2
Ya know, Verizon already has a couple cities running LTE with many more being added in 2010. If they do a repeat of EVDO they will light up their entire network with LTE by mid-2011.


RE: The VoIP support is more geared towards LTE
By BruceLeet on 1/28/2010 10:43:51 AM , Rating: 2
I read this I think in a random Technology news fetch from Google News, it would cost AT&T over $5 billion to match Verizons 3G coverage...with the analysts clearing that as unlikely with the logical thing to do is go straight to LTE.


By mcnabney on 1/28/2010 3:19:16 PM , Rating: 2
It would take far more than $5B for AT&T to match Verizon for coverage. Verizon's coverage is litteraly 5x larger than AT&T and no mere $5B is going to grow it that much. The towers alone would cost $20B.

On another note, AT&T is currently scrapping-by on spectrum. Their iPhone monopoly may have actually gridlocked their networks for the long term since there isn't going to be another spectrum auction for a long time. So moving voice calls from the more open voice frequencies to the jampacked data frequencies is going to throw gasoline on the fire. I am glad I don't use them for wireless...


Progress is moving from a brick to a slab
By 306maxi on 1/28/10, Rating: 0
By melgross on 1/28/2010 12:49:57 PM , Rating: 3
I imagine that you would use a headset over BT 2.1 to make and receive these calls, if that's what someone would really want to do.


Great news
By littleprince on 1/28/2010 11:09:08 AM , Rating: 2
Almost sh!t my pants!

Now I just need to wait the mandatory million years till this hits Canada!




By damianrobertjones on 1/28/2010 5:14:36 PM , Rating: 2
http://cnn-cnet.com.com/8301-27080_3-10438313-245....

Apple fixes a dozen vulnerabilities affecting Mac OS X 10.5 and 10.6 in its first security update for the year released on Wednesday.




Why?
By XabanakFanatik on 1/28/2010 6:50:13 PM , Rating: 2
I read the last sentence as "better Nate than lever".




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