AT&T gets love from the FCC – but can it really handle Skype?

One of the more looked-forward to keynotes at CTIA this year was the address by FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski. While he was mostly optimistic about how mobile operators are behaving in the States (especially namechecking AT&T and Verizon), he declared that the “looming spectrum crisis” is the biggest problem facing Ameria’s mobile industry.

Why AT&T and Verizon?

Specifically because of announcements made recently. Just yesterday, Verizon announced that it is entering into a deal with Google. This deal will see them co-create devices and applications for consumers, including allowing Google Voice to run on any device on the Verizon network. AT&T got love because it confirmed that it will also be allowing VoIP applications like Skype to work on iPhones over its network. Quite how they intend to monitise this is a mystery they have yet to unveil.

There are already questions over this, however. Most importantly, how does AT&T intend to do this? AT&T has problems with MMS – what is it going to do to allow Skype to run on their network?

Here’s an idea (that was described by a fellow blogger as “100% paranoid and probably completely correct”): AT&T sees the chance for some good publicity and jump on it. The FCC gave it love at CTIA, so it certainly attracted positive attention. If VoIP users try to use Skype on the network, it might just not work. But by that point AT&T has already pulled in the good press… and now don’t have to pay the price for people using Skype. Just a thought.

Anyway… what’s the bandwidth problem?

More than anything the operators are doing, Genachowski is worried about the bandwidth crisis. There is simply not enough spectrum available to allow everyone to do what they want. At the same time, more operators (like T-Mobile) want to get bandwidth so that they can stay competitive.

Genachowski has an uncomfortable juggling act to pull of here – he has to make sure that both the carriers and the users get the best performance they can. And users will typically want to do more and more over the spectrum available. This is part of the reason the FCC is so happy that AT&T and Verizon are allowing VoIP services – allowing these kinds of applications seems counter-intuitive for operators who want to save on data bandwidth, but they are both extremely consumer friendly moves.

AT&T jump at the chance

Capitalising on the fact that it’s getting some good press, AT&T has jumped at the chance to be friendly with the FCC. AT&T CEO Ralph de la Vega has declared that the American mobile industry “isn’t broken” claiming, amongst other things, that it offers incredibly choice and freedom to consumers, is competitive and is ready to keep abreast of technological developments. He has called for the FCC to enter into a “fact-based” dialog with the mobile industry before making any regulatory decisions.

Other reactions:

I got the chance to sit down with Jonathan Spalter, CEO of Mobile Future. This organisation is dedicated to the future of the mobile industry, including acting as a mediator between governmental/regulatory bodies and companies/operators in the mobile industry. He had some great comments on the FCC address today – check out the video of our interview!