WSJ’s Walt Mossberg: Free the Phones!
The Wall Street Journal's Walt Mossberg is angry. And he's got a really good reason.
"Suppose you own a Dell computer, and you decide to replace it with a Sony," he writes. "You don't have to get the permission of your Internet service provider to do so, or even tell the provider about it. You can just pack up the old machine and set up the new one." The same is true, he notes, of any software and services you might use on that computer.
But that's not true with regard to mobile phones.
"A shortsighted and often just plain stupid federal government has allowed itself to be bullied and fooled by a handful of big wireless phone operators for decades now," Mossberg writes. "And the result has been a mobile phone system that is the direct opposite of the PC model. It severely limits consumer choice, stifles innovation, crushes entrepreneurship, and has made the U.S. the laughingstock of the mobile-technology world, just as the cellphone is morphing into a powerful hand-held computer."
It's going to take either government action or a new and disruptive technology, Mossberg says, to break that control – and that can't happen too soon.
More here from MacNN … and more here from Wired.
CellularPronto said:
Oct 23, 07 at 6:40 amEach new computer costs you additional money. DSL and cable providers generally require you to sign up for a year contract in order to secure a low montly fee. As for a new phone with 2-year contract, it can be free or even with cash back after rebates. That’s the beauty or evil of commitment, depending on your views. And besides, it will be very difficult for carriers to manage if customers decide to switch to different carriers every month.