Skype

What does AT&T's announcement today, regarding a change of policy to allow VoIP applications like Skype to operate over the 3G network mean for Google Voice in the App Store and SlingPlayer over 3G?

Nothing.

Not to rain on our many commenters and emailers parades, but AT&T's VoIP policy has nothing to do with either of those apps because:

The Washington Post is rumormongering that AT&T might just officially announce support for Skype and Google Voice on their 3G network at this week's CTIA show, and that they will run on Apple's iPhone.

UPDATE: As pointed out in comments, Android honcho Andy Rubin responds on the Google blog:

Here are the facts, clear and simple: While the first generation of our Android software did not support full-featured VoIP applications due to technology limitations, we have worked through those limitations in subsequent versions of Android, and developers are now able to build and upload VoIP services.

Rubin claims USA Today was made aware of this, but also says "individual operators can request that certain applications be filtered if they violate their terms of service", which basically means AT&T's no SlingPlayer, or conceivably any networks no-VoIP policy, would still affect Android, so -- okay. Let's get to it Skype and we'll see what T-Mo really thinks.

However, Rubin does dream, like all of us (likely even Apple, in public, if asked) of the day when "dumb pipes" are a reality.

Keeping it short but sweet, Skype's blog shows once again how crazy-powerful Apple's iPhone software platform really is:

In less than two days, Skype for iPhone has been downloaded more than one million times – around six downloads every second.