Vonage just announced their app for the iPhone yesterday that allows discounted international calls. AT&T’s recent announcement doesn’t seem to have effected the status of the Google Voice application.

Ruth Milkman, Chief
Wireless Telecommunications Bureau
Federal Communications Commission
445 12th Street, SW
Washington DC 20554

Re: AT&T Response to Wireless Telecommunications Bureau Letter, DA 09-1737 (July 31, 2009); RM-11361; RM-11497

Dear Ms. Milkman:

On behalf of AT&T, I am writing to provide you with an update to AT&T’s August 21, 2009 response to the Bureau’s questions about the Apple iPhone. In our response, we explained that AT&T currently offers a variety of devices that enable VoIP applications to make use of our wireless network (including our 2G and 3G capabilities) and the devices’ Wi-Fi connectivity. We further explained that the iPhone currently supports VoIP applications that make use of the device’s Wi-Fi connectivity, but VoIP capabilities were not available on the iPhone for use on our wireless network. We also stated that we were taking a fresh look at the issue and would promptly notify the Commission of any such change in our policies. AT&T has completed its review of the matter and today we informed Apple that, effective immediately, AT&T consents to Apple enabling third-party VoIP applications for the iPhone that use our wireless network, including our 2G and 3G capabilities.

If you have any questions or need additional information, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Sincerely,
Robert W. Quinn, Jr.

Features
1. Make and receive calls over WiFi
2. Transfer inbound calls from a regular cell call to WiFi instantly and seamlessly – save your expensive minutes
3. Access your same address book
4. Customize your voicemail options

You can get more information via their Website.

Demo Video

After you install the application and have it open for the first time, it will say authentication failed…this is because you have not configured your account yet. To do so, tap on the configure Account button in the upper right corner. Here you will enter your sipgate number as the username (that is the number you received in the email) and your password. Make sure you check the password in the email becuase it cuts the password off after 8 characters…so, double check to make sure you have the password entered correctly. Once you have entered that information, you can select sipgate VoIP in the upper left corner. Now, just type in a phone number (with the area code) to make a call.

Here was my experience using sipgate. I was able to call Doug’s regular cell phone number with no problem (they provide 111 minutes of free calls to domestic phones). However, neither Doug or I were able to receive an incoming call to sipgate. This is what the developer has to say about receiving incoming calls.

At this time there is no meaningful support for incoming calls. While you can answer incoming calls whenever sipgate is running on your iPhone it does not alert you, when the VoIP software is not running. The reason being the iPhone’s high power consumption while Wi-Fi is active. If we just suspended the software to monitor incoming calls, your battery would be empty in no time. We realized this is a halfhearted solution. We are working on improving this release.

We were unable to receive calls to sipgate even when the application was open.

You can go to sipgate.com and login to see how many of the 111 minutes you have used, how many minutes you have remaining and change your password. They also have a nice F.A.Q Page that is definitely worth checking out. There is also a place to enter information from any VoIP service provider and use them through sipgate. Let me know in the comments what you think of this application.

Note: The sipgate icon in the lower left corner of the application does not do anything.