Sling: We didn't ‘work’ with AT&T for 3G streaming to iPhone (Updated)
AT&T made headlines Thursday by announcing that it had decided to allow SlingPlayer Mobile for iPhone to stream video from a Slingbox over its 3G network. AT&T's CEO claimed in the announcement that Sling Media modified …
Context & Ripple Effects
The backstory is a year long: SlingPlayer Mobile for iPhone was announced back in January 2009, but it shipped restricted to Wi-Fi, and by May analysts were arguing that network congestion wasn't the only reason AT&T balked at 3G Slinging. Thursday AT&T reversed course, announcing 3G streaming would be allowed — while its CEO claimed Sling Media had 'modified' something in the app to make it acceptable.
Sling immediately denied any joint work with AT&T, a direct contradiction of the carrier's framing. That dispute lands amid a rough stretch for AT&T: VoIP-over-3G restrictions have drawn sustained criticism even after Skype started working on 3G with iPhone OS 3.0, rumors are circulating about the iPhone's exclusive carrier deal, and AT&T stopped online iPhone sales to New York customers citing fraud concerns.
First-order effects
- iPhone owners with a Slingbox gain live 3G place-shifting roughly eight months after the app launched Wi-Fi-only, removing the biggest functional complaint about the product.
- AT&T's official explanation — that Sling changed the app — now rests on a claim Sling itself publicly denies, leaving the carrier owning a policy reversal it cannot cleanly attribute.
Second-order effects
- Every other app category AT&T has gated on 3G faces the same question Sling just answered: if one bandwidth-heavy video app gets through without a documented technical change, the carrier's per-app criteria lose credibility.
- Rival carriers can market against AT&T's restriction record just as speculation about the iPhone's exclusivity deal gives them a concrete opening to court Apple and its users.
Third-order effects
- US carriers appear to be shifting from blanket service bans toward selective, negotiated per-app network access — a model where the carrier still sets the gate but increasingly absorbs public blame for who passes through it.
- If policy reversals keep being justified by unverifiable claims about partner 'modifications,' expect regulators and press to demand published, testable criteria for what runs on mobile broadband.
The trend: Mobile carriers are trading blanket bans for discretionary per-app approvals, converting network management into a public relations problem each time the gate moves.