FCC Considers Investigating Apple’s Battle With Beeper Mini

If you thought the story of Beeper Mini attempting to act as the go-to iMessage service on Android was over, you would be wrong. While Beeper called it quits back in December of last year because Apple had figured out several ways to block Beeper Mini from working, they have other allies potentially on their side that could give them another chance in the future. We’re talking about the US government.

FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr said this week that he believes Apple should be investigated over the whole debacle. Carr referenced the FCC’s Part 14 rules as reasoning for looking into Apple’s actions.

Those rules apparently involve making sure advanced communications services are “accessible to and usable by individuals with disabilities.” In other words, Carr believes that Apple stopping Beeper Mini from working could be preventing (or impeding) specific individuals from accessing Apple’s iMessage. I mean, yeah, Apple is certainly doing that, but why was it Beeper Mini that made this a thing for the FCC to look into?

Carr called out Apple on Twitter (here) with a brief explanation and also video where he further discusses his issue with what has been done to Beeper Mini.

He then responded to someone who was critical of the idea by pointing out that that iMessage provides a “degraded” experience in photo quality, video resolution, location sharing, and more:

Do those settings fix the problem of degraded photo quality, down resolution of videos, removal of location info, inaccessibility of advanced messaging features, etc when messaging with Android ? There are many negative consequences (incl competitive ones) that flow from Apple’s iMessage decisions.

Carr did not say that the FCC was investigating Apple over this situation, only that he believes they should. I guess time will tell, green bubble warriors.

// Techcrunch