Backstory: Google purchased VoIP provider Gizmo5 last year in a move which seemed to indicate that they were going to merge their Google Voice and Google Talk clients to make a Skype-like service that would be able to call traditional phone numbers.

Since that point not much has emerged out of Google on the VoIP front.

Last week, however, TechCrunch obtained and reviewed a leaked Mac version of the fabled Google Voice desktop client. It looks pretty ready for general release, even if for the typical Google Beta release program.

The leaked application came with the news that Google was reportedly going to forgo releasing a desktop client so that it could focus on delivering a better web client.

That news didn’t sit well with some people who’ve been anxiously awaiting the Google Voice desktop client. Some have even started a petition to get Google to release this application publicly.

If you are interested in seeing a Google Voice VoIP client released, here’s where you can sign the petition. The petition just started this morning but its creators are hoping to collect 500,000 signatures.

Source.

We’re not seeing the Skype app in the App store. We’re very eager to get to the bottom of this, and I can tell you this has nothing to do with our Verizon deal. The Skype for iPhone app and the Skype Mobile app on Verizon Wireless phones have co-existed.

Update: Skype says that this is due to the fact that they just uploaded a new version of Skype for iPhone 4.0 which had “some difficulties” and that they’re working to fix it:

Today, Skype just submitted a new version of its iOS4 build to Apple. In the process we encountered some difficulties. Skype will work quickly to get its current Skype for iPhone app back up as soon as possible.”

Update 2: Alright, looks like it’s back.
There’s still a page on Skype’s official site that details the application’s features and doesn’t give any indication that the application is being killed off. But Skype’s mobile site oddly omits any mention of it — it only talks about BlackBerry and Android devices from Verizon. We’ll update as we learn more.

Source.

In comments due Thursday to the FCC on a proposal to move broadband access services into the same category as phone services, the FBI said the FCC should not strip away law enforcement authorities’ access to communications networks.

“The rationale is as valid today as it was in 2006 – the need for clear authority to investigate and, if necessary, penalize non-compliant carriers and equipment manufacturers continues to exist, and the Commission’s expertise and experience regarding CALEA continue to make it well-suited to investigate and resolve compliance matters,” wrote Elaine Lammert, deputy general counsel of the FBI. “This established principle should not be disturbed by the Commission’s present efforts to establish a framework for broadband Internet services.”

The Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act requires a telecommunications service provider to intercept calls for law enforcement authorities. That requirement applies to phone and broadband Internet services, including VoIP, or Internet-based voice services.

In recent years, some privacy and anti-regulatory groups have protested the expanded scope of CALEA. Higher education and library associations have unsuccessfully taken the FCC to court over its interpretation in 2005 that VoiP and broadband services were covered by CALEA.

A federal appeals court ruled in May that the FCC lacked the authority to prevent Internet service providers from blocking or slowing traffic on their networks. The decision came in a lawsuit filed by Comcast, which had sought to overturn an agency sanction for alleged violations of open-Internet guidelines. That ruling cast into doubt the FCC’s ability to regulate broadband providers just as the agency had begun to push its plan to expand high-speed Internet access nationwide.

With its relevancy in the Internet age at stake and backed by a majority of the commissioners, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowksi proposed reclassifying broadband as a regular phone service. Such a move would put broadband providers squarely under the agency’s authority. In its proposal, the agency said that plans to strip away some rules for broadband providers would not apply to wiretapping.

Senior FCC staff, including Genachowski’s chief of staff, Eddie Lazarus, met again this week with telecommunications and cable service providers AT&T and Verizon and the National Cable and Telecommunications Association to see if they could come up with compromises on net neutrality that would help avoid the FCC’s proposed move to reclassify broadband. Those companies in their comments disagreed with the proposal.

Original source.