After being rumored as far back as January of last year, announced over a year ago, and successfully demonstrated at Macworld Expo earlier this year, SlingPlayer Mobile for iPhone is now available for your App Store purchasing pleasure. While it offers excellent remote access to Slingbox hardware and the content it serves, the $30 price tag seems a little too high, especially given that AT&T forced Sling Media to cripple the software and block 3G network access.

SlingPlayer Mobile will connect to any Slingbox SOLO, PRO, or PRO-HD, and allow control of a variety of set-top boxes, DVRs, and even an Apple TV. (While not officially supported, Sling notes that streaming with the older Slingbox Classic, AV, and TUNER may work "with some configurations.") Essentially anything you can do with your (newer) Slingbox, including watching any and all content available, can be done remotely via your iPhone.

Well, as long as your iPhone is within reach of a WiFi network, that is. AT&T has admitted that it forced Sling to remove streaming capabilities over its 3G data network, citing a clause in its terms of service that prohibits "redirecting a TV signal to a personal computer."

"We consider smartphones like the iPhone to be personal computers in that they have the same hardware and software attributes as PCs," a statement released by the company said. "That said, we don't restrict users from going to a Web site that lets them view videos."

Unfortunately, AT&T's logic is full of more holes than Sam Beckett's post-leap memory. The move is ostensibly to prevent the kind of problems AT&T's 3G network suffered under the weight of thousands of iPhone users during Macworld Expo or SXSW earlier this year. "Slingbox, which would use large amounts of wireless network capacity, could create congestion and potentially prevent other customers from using the network," according to AT&T.

We won't begrudge AT&T trying to prevent customers from getting poor service. But we also don't believe all iPhone users will suddenly start streaming Slingbox-served content all day long. The same problem would happen if enough people were to stream YouTube videos simultaneously—which, by the way, can be done via AT&T's 3G network.

Further, numerous other cellphones, "smart" or otherwise, are capable of running a version of SlingPlayer—also over AT&T's 3G network. It appears that iPhone users are being singled out, however, because of the iPhone's popularity, as it is used far more than other devices for network access.

AT&T itself has repeatedly credited the iPhone for driving up its ARPU and wireless revenues for the last few quarters. In a sense, AT&T seems to be telling its most lucrative customers, "Thank you for paying us lots of money to use our network—just don't actually use it too much, mmkay?"

AT&T's goal of maintaining a good minimum service level for all 3G users is a laudable one, but cutting off 3G access to useful apps for its highest-paying customers (while allowing it for others) is a pretty lousy way to do it. AT&T needs to work harder on increasing the capacity of its 3G network to avoid having to cripple the functionality of the devices it sells.