Life is like a B-movie. You don’t want to leave in the middle of it, but you don’t want to see it again. — Ted Turner
AT&T has approved the Sling Media’s Slingplayer app for the iPhone to run over the 3G wireless network. The app had only been available over WiFi until now.
A year ago, AT&T said that such a bandwidth-intensive video service would overwhelm its network, so it limited it to Wi-Fi connections.
Sling Media, a subsidiary of EchoStar, complained to the FCC that AT&T’s policy was discriminatory, since other applications, such as Major League Baseball’s, also stream live video over AT&T’s 3G network.
AT&T appears to have recognized that its position was indefensible and relented.
The SlingPlayer may also turn the larger-screen iPad into an extra TV set. This is good news for Hulu and Netflix — if the companies ever put out iPhone applications (or Android tablet applications). Which they probably will.
In its press release, AT&T said it has worked with Sling to ensure the app is optimized to minimize network congestion. The upgraded SlingPlayer application may not immediately available. Sling said it is still waiting for Apple to approve it. Anyone who already bought the $30 app will get a free upgrade, the company said.
Maybe Cisco’s bandwidth projections are right.
In other news, the Sirius XM application for BlackBerry is now available. It runs on the Storm/Storm 2, Curve, Bold and Tour and requires a Sirius XM subscription plus the additional online streaming feature, which costs $3 per month. There’s something like 120 channels available, but no Howard Stern.
Satellite radio has competition from free internet radio services like Pandora and Slacker, of course. Pandora has been available on mobile devices, including WebOS, for a while, but now Slacker fans can get theirs on every webOS phone, too.
