iPhone Challenge: Saying "no" to AT&T

Here's my challenge. I'll pay $100 for a VoIP client I can use over WiFi on my iPhone. Matthew Miller has explained that the iPhone will work without the AT&T SIM card, and I've set up my Sprint EV-DO card in a MacBook Pro to share its connection with my iPhone, so I don't need AT&T to complete any network tasks.

So, why the challenge? Because Apple has isolated the telephony features of the iPhone to help AT&T preserve its core business: Voice services. Anyone who doubts this can look at the revenue split in the iPhone plans between data and voice services. AT&T is literally giving away its data connections to sell voice minutes.

My business partner, Ramin Firoozye, explains, if you haven't already heard the short version somewhere else:

...it's in a closed sandbox. You don't get Flash, Java, native VOIP client, or any way to add software. JavaScript alone doesn't let you run a VOIP client. So basically, you're stuck until Apple finds a way around it, or some clever hackers break through the sandbox like they did on the AppleTV.

My money is on the hackers. By sharing my much faster Sprint EV-DO connection, I can get better Web performance than AT&T's EDGE network can deliver anywhere I go. So, why not use that capacity for VoIP?

As I said, I'll pay up to $100 for that client if I can get it before the 30-day AT&T deadline to cancel my line of service. Join the movement, answer the poll below to encourage some enterprising developer to beat the clock.

[poll id=15]