"Free My Phone" -- Walt Mossberg

[arsenal]

A very good and interesting read, regarding the current state of the cell phone industry, and what he feels is needed in order for innovations to come in the near future.
It is based on the current state of the US network, but it closely resembles that of Canadian cell companies.

http://mossblog.allthingsd.com/20071021/free-my-phone/

That’s why I refer to the big cellphone carriers as the “Soviet ministries.” Like the old bureaucracies of communism, they sit athwart the market, breaking the link between the producers of goods and services and the people who use them.......They require the hardware and software makers to tailor their products to meet the carriers’ specifications, not just so they work properly on the network, but so they promote the carriers’ brands and their various add-on services.

[photon]

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.

[arsenal]

Exactly. Especially for guys like you and your line of work.

That's what I want my cell provider to be as well. The only value I want them to add, is cheaper and better rates for data, voice, txt, etc. I want the ability to choose my phone, applications, services, etc.

That's the way Cable/Satellite providers and ISP's are right now. How come cell companies get to be different?/

[mykalberta]

(From article, so US perspective)

This was posted in user comments:

(1)American wireless consumers enjoy the second lowest per minute prices in the world, a fourth of the cost Europeans pay per minute?

(2)American wireless consumers to use wireless much more than any other Nation’s consumers and almost four times more than Europeans?

(3)America enjoys the world’s most facilities-based wireless competitive choices?

Is the above true? If it is I would say it is competing in the fair market. Not everything has to be free and open so long as the price is competitive IMO. Is it not true that the phone companies purchased the spectrum? Is there limited BW in those spectrums? If consumers are so up in arms then they should choose Sim card based GSM phones and get them unlocked to use on GSM networks. That way sticking it to the CDMA companies.