FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski sounds pretty pleased with steps wireless providers have taken over the past week. In a speech today he complimented AT&T for its recent 3G over VoIP commitment and Verizon and Google for upcoming Android headsets that will support Google Voice. The speech was among the most pejorative things I’ve read (get the full text here), and I couldn’t help feeling insulted at all the back-clapping going on.

We’re still a long way from a level of consumer respect that I find acceptable, so comments like the following rub me raw:

That’s because all of you are changing the world. You’ve turned clunky one-trick handsets into sleek and powerful mini-PCs. You’ve made the Internet mobile, freeing broadband from the desktop and making it possible to imagine a world where the Internet is available to anyone, anywhere, anytime.

You’re making that possible through the billions you’ve invested, and the billions you plan to invest.

I’m sorry, I guess I didn’t realize how nice the wireless companies have been. It’s almost like they aren’t making billions back through ridiculous airtime and data charges, egregious texting plans, and obscene service outages and dropped call rates. Granted, I don’t line nearly as many pockets in Washington as these companies do, but Genachowski addresses them like spoiled children. “Great job, Timmy. You only punched three girls today, not four, and frankly, two of them deserved it.”

I’m all for government support of broadband expansion and commitments to improved service, but let’s not coddle big wireless. Sure AT&T opened up to VoIP, but it took an FCC investigation to get it there. I pulled crap like this on my parents all the time. Sure, I was nice to my siblings, but as soon as I was alone I was scribbling swear words on the bathroom wall in red Sharpie.

Source: Reuters

It seems Apple has one less straw man to throw at investigators over the Google Voice rejection. AT&T has decided, at long last, to allow VoIP calling over 3G connections. VoIP over 3G has been the reason behind a whole slew of app rejections for the iPhone. The change probably comes as a result of the net neutrality discussion, but even so, it’s something I expected AT&T to fight aggressively, not acquiesce to.

The policy change means you can now do some pretty cool stuff, like use Skype anywhere, or the new Vonage app that heralded the VoIP announcement. It also puts a lot of pressure on Apple to push the Google Voice app through. We all know the “duplicating iPhone features,” defense is a load of crap, and this leaves Apple with very little reason for the rejection.

Of course, the policy change also means a lot more data traffic on AT&T’s overtasked network. It’ll be interesting to see how well that holds up.