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No free VoIP on your current phone, silly consumer

The same type of open access rule that was added to the recent 700MHz spectrum auctions won't be imposed on current spectrum, as Skype hoped it would.

Skype wanted the Federal Communications Commission to compel wireless carriers to permit the use of its VoIP technology on their networks. The entrenched carriers wanted no part of it, and the FCC's chairman sided with them.

The Carterfone decision that allowed people to connect any device to AT&T's network, not just phones purchased from AT&T, didn't sway FCC chairman Kevin Martin. Skype Journal cited Martin's disappointing comments at the CTIA show in Las Vegas:

In light of the industry’s embrace of a more open wireless platform, it would be premature to adopt any other requirements across the industry. Thus, today I will circulate to my fellow commissioners an order dismissing a petition for declaratory ruling filed by Skype that would apply Carterfone requirements to existing wireless networks.

The more open platform Martin refers to is the 700MHz spectrum, but this is a feint. Conditions placed on the auction to permit open applications and open devices already existed with the wireless carriers. But the carriers don't have to be a conduit for technologies like VoIP, and won't have to be once the new spectrum opens for business, either.

Google and an assortment of partners want to route around the problem by enabling a technology solution that can operate in the open white spaces of the 700MHz spectrum. This idea has been opposed on the grounds the signals will interfere with other devices on that network.