The New York Times had a story today (When Mobile Phones Aren't Truly Mobile) on the state of carrier control in the US. The point of the story is to make clear that the current carriers, all of them offshoots of the old Ma Bell, are working in the same anti-competitive fashion that the old Ma Bell did when it was forced to split up. And the key is the artificial panic that the carriers try to spread when it comes to the subject of letting others 'use' their networks for any reason (like all of our clients trying to make a buck or two selling mobile games off-deck).
This subject is awfully close to our hearts at Movaya, as working with the carriers is the biggest pain in our collective asses. Like most people, I do not want Google to rule the world, but I am all for them throwing their hats into the wireless ring and trying to open up all the 'walled gardens'. It will benefit everyone, just as the article states happened with landline networks when the Feds forced them (Ma Bell) open to 3rd party innovators who produced such things as answering machines and the fax machine. Imagine, there was a time when Ma Bell tried to artificially induce panic in everyone by crying that answering machines would threaten the the integrity of their network...I would guess they simply hadn't thought to invent it yet.
It appears that there are a few fronts attacking the walls of the carriers, and they will break down eventually. We have MVNOs springing up left and right, large retailers desiring to sell mobile content, Visa, AMEX, Mastercard, Paypal and Google looking to use their payment processors on the handhelds, Microsoft and Apple building mobile OSes, and huge media companies looking to advertise like mad and showcase their goods on the little screen...yes there are big forces out there cracking the walls so us little people can sneak in and make a living. It just needs to happen a little faster.
Read More...
[Source: Mobile Phone Blog]
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment