Things are about to get a lot more interesting in the mobile phone business, and I don’t think the carriers are going to like how this one turns out. I was just reading an article in BusinessWeek by Olga Kharif, who said that in a hearing yesterday, the Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski called for comments from smartphone developers. The question is this: Are mobile phone carriers inhibiting smartphone application development?

That may seem frivolous to you. Why should the FCC get involved with smartphone applications? For years people have been complaining about wanting this or that cool phone that’s only available at another carrier. The ability to switch carriers and port your number over was one concession, but it’s very difficult for anyone to prove that just because the, oh, I don’t know, let’s say iPhone for example, is only available through AT&T, that the exclusive contract is anticompetitive. However, as Kharif explained, if there’s an application that could be made available for a particular phone but the carrier won’t permit it, that might be considered problematic, which is why software developers and companies that sell smartphone apps are being asked for their feelings on the matter.

“Dude, wait,” I hear you saying, “Why would the FCC care if my mobile phone carrier doesn’t want a particular game on my phone?” Actually, though I don’t know for sure, I think the FCC doesn’t care about games. Instead, the agency is more concerned about apps that add other functionality, such as voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) calls. See, phone companies of all types aren’t fond of VoIP technology, such as that offered by Skype, because it lets you make phone calls over the Internet for free (within reason. International calls require payment). VoIP works by converting your voice into little packets of data, just like other Internet traffic, and sending it over the same computer infrastructure that your e-mail and Web pages travel on. For mobile carriers, that means that your phone calls are now routed over your data plan and don’t go toward your minutes. This makes them cranky.

Kharif said that the mobile phone carriers feel that there’s only so much traffic that their networks can handle. Voice calls should be made over the voice plan. Not to mention that a less-expensive international calling option might not be in the companies’ best interest. Their stockholders probably agree.

Nothing may come of it, but the FCC is expected to release new regulations for the wireless industry in 2010, according to Kharif’s article. Meanwhile, I expect the phone companies to lobby pretty hard for their side. They may even agree to loosen things up a bit, simply to preserve their autonomy. One way or the other, we haven’t heard the last of it.

For more on smartphones and wireless technology, take a gander at these HowStuffWorks.com articles:

How Smartphones Work
How WiFi Works
How WiMax Works