Monday, April 6, 2009

AT&T Feeling Threatened by Skype?

I really need to start blogging my "predictions" or "premonitions" when I get them, so it doesn't look like I'm simply bandwagoning when I have known this all along!

I have thought for the longest time that mobile VoIP was going to be the death-knell of the cell phone industry, much like blogs have been to the newspaper industry as we know it. All it takes is one company to offer iPhone-esque hardware, and charge simply for unlimited wireless access. No minutes...no need. You have Skype or something else to allow you to talk globally for free.

Well, this of course won't sit well with those currently in the driver's seat of the industry, just as journalists first scoffed at blogs...before they got really nasty. VoIP wasn't really on the radar of the cell industry...until Skype got an iPhone app. Now, they're getting nasty.

I'm secretly hoping that US Cellular will make the jump to a new business model (and to iPhones), because I am ready to ditch AT&T!!!