Voice over Internet Protocol

Six months after launching trials of its new 4G Long Term Evolution network, Verizon Wireless has reported wireless data speeds faster than its own and competitors' existing networks. The recorded speeds are also faster than any competitors' promised 3G network speeds.

Trials in Boston and Seattle show the LTE network is able to hold peak download speeds of 40 to 50 megabits per second and peak upload speeds of 20 to 25 megabits per second, the New Jersey-based wireless carrier announced Monday.

Opera announced it has developed a version of its Opera Mini web browser for Apple's iPhone. The Norwegian company said it will demonstrate the new browser at the Mobile World Conference in Barcelona, Spain.

Jon von Tetzchner, cofounder of Opera Software, said he is "thrilled" to offer the preview and added that the software provides a "fast, feature-rich" experience for iPhone users. Opera on the iPhone brings the company "one step closer" to its mission of "bringing the web to the world," he said.

Will Apple Approve?

Amazon.com has reportedly purchased a leading touchscreen innovator in an apparent bid to add more functionality to its Kindle e-book reader. With Apple set to begin shipping its highly anticipated iPad tablet computer in less than two months with an iBooks application and multimedia capability, Amazon is under pressure to keep its share of the market.

Roger Flessing was on an American Airlines flight to Seattle recently when he began speaking with his son on his iPhone.

Unsure of how his action might be received by others, the Tacoma resident says he spoke discreetly. But soon, he says, flight attendants were leaning over, asking for a demonstration on how to make calls on their mobile phones. "They were saying, 'Wow this is great. We have to check our schedule, and we couldn't do that before,'" says Flessing, who flies often for his job as a communications executive for the non-profit relief organization World Vision.

Apple and AT&T today are expected to tell the Federal Communications Commission why Google's free voice application, called Google Voice, is banned from the Apple iPhone. Google is also filing comments.

But Google may soon find itself on the hot seat as well, telecom and public policy analysts say.

Why: Consumers who use Android, the Google-developed operating system for wireless devices, can't use Skype, a leading Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) service. A pioneer in free Internet calling, Skype allows you to talk as long as you want without draining cell phone minutes.

The day when you can regularly receive and send high-definition video from your smartphone is closer, following Verizon Wireless' announcement Friday that it has completed its first successful field test of 4G/Long Term Evolution (LTE) data calls. The tests, using the 3GPP Release 8 standard, were conducted in Boston and Seattle, and the company said the calls involved file uploads and downloads, streaming video, and Web browsing.

Verizon also said it successfully made data calls using Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) on the LTE 4G network.

When Harry Emerson thinks of Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), he shakes his head thinking about the millions of telephone users who give up security for inexpensive calls. And once multimedia phones, which combine voice, video and web browsing, become popular, he thinks of the intensified crime waves hackers, cyber criminals and terrorists will bring to communications.

Skype's free iPhone application is stirring up debate again. Available on Apple's App Store on March 31, the app first stirred debate after being blocked by Deutsche Telekom in Germany. Now Skype is fueling debate on network neutrality.

Skype's Voice over Internet Protocol app gives users Skype calling and instant messaging on Apple iPhones and second-generation iPod touches. The application, which saw more than one million downloads in the first two days after being made available, allows users to make calls on the iPhone over a Wi-Fi connection, but not on AT&T's 3G cellular network.

Just two days after announcing an application for Apple's iPhone and iPod touch, Skype has hit a roadblock. On Thursday, Deutsche Telekom, a German wireless provider, banned use of the application on the iPhone and said anyone caught using it will face a contract suspension.

Skype, owned by eBay, has more than 405 million registered users who communicate for free by voice, video calls, and instant messages.

American Airlines is giving passengers Wi-Fi access in the sky. The airline will expand on its trial flight with Aircell, a provider of airborne communications.

American will move from the trial phase by installing Aircell's Gogo Inflight Internet on 300 domestic aircraft over the next two years, the company said Tuesday.

Thousands of passengers traveling on more than a dozen of American's Boeing 767-200 airplanes have had access to the in-flight Internet service on nonstop flights between New York's JFK and San Francisco, Los Angeles and Miami.