I was talking to someone who's been in the industry for a while, from running a division of a Canadian carrier to doing some VC work in the industry, and this mimics what he told me to some extent.
He said that the carriers' single biggest fear is that they become service providers. Their fear is they become just like an ISP, providing bandwidth to phones and that's it. That's why each carrier tries as hard as they can to, in their view, add value. In adding their value though they either lock people into their solution, or at the very least make sure they get their cut of the dollar.
That made total sense to me; what I WANT is a mobile device that is just like my computer, and the carrier is simply a mobile internet service provider. But that's the carriers' greatest fear. I'd love to see a new carrier come in with a new 3G or 4G network and be just a service provider, letting customers decide what they want/need.
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Uncertainty is an uncomfortable position.
But certainty is an absurd one.
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