Having worked for AT&T and Lucent for 22 years, I found this=20
article interesting and amusing. Talk about history repeating=20
itself!
Ma Bell fought tooth and nail to prevent outside companies from=20
attaching anything to the telephone network - like telephones,=20
fax machines, computers - stating that she had to protect the=20
network against these damaging pieces of equipment. Ma got a lot=20
of revenue from leasing the equipment that she owned and allowed=20
- but ultimately she lost.
The wireless networks in the US have been doing the same thing,=20
and they are screaming bloody murder about Google's attempt to=20
lease some bandwidth and open it up.
Not so in Europe and Asia, according to the article, where you=20
are allowed to switch networks without penalty and you don't have=20
to throw out your phone, just replace a piece of memory in the=20
phone that allows you to talk to the new network.
I guess Verizon, Sprint, Qwest, et. al. aren't too fond of a free=20
market...
FurPaw
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/22/business/yourmoney/22digi.html
When Mobile Phones Aren=92t Truly Mobile
By RANDALL STROSS
Published: July 22, 2007
<quote>
WIRELESS carriers in the United States are spiritual descendants=20
of dear Ma Bell: they view total control over customers as their=20
inherited birthright.
The younger generation =97 Verizon Wireless, Sprint Nextel,=20
T-Mobile and the namesake child AT&T =97 would make their hallowed=20
matriarch proud. They do everything they can to keep power firmly=20
in their own hands. It is entirely at the carriers=92 discretion to=20
permit, or disable, the features that a factory loads into the=20
newest phones. They also decide which software can be installed=20
and how it may be used. Many wireless subscribers have ruefully=20
become acquainted with gotcha clauses in their contracts.
In most European and Asian countries, a customer can switch=20
carriers in a few seconds by removing a smart card from a=20
cellphone and inserting a different one from a new provider. In=20
the United States, wireless carriers have deliberately hobbled=20
their phones to make flight to a competitor difficult, if not=20
impossible.
If you, the long-suffering subscriber, decide that you have had=20
enough and wish to try your luck with another company, you=92re=20
free to pay your early-termination fee and go. But you most=20
likely will have to abandon the phone you=92ve already paid for,=20
even when the technology is shared by the two carriers. (Sprint,=20
for example, whose network is based on the CDMA standard, forbids=20
the use of CDMA-based cellphones obtained from Verizon.) The odds=20
are better than even that your cellphone is either locked by your=20
incumbent carrier or forbidden for use on the network by your new=20
one.
</quote>
--=20
"Every gun that is made, every warship launched,
every rocket fired, signifies in the final sense
a theft from those who hunger and are not fed,
those who are cold and are not clothed."
- Dwight D. Eisenhower
To reply, unleash the dog.
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