[LINK] Wireless Oligopoly Is Smother of Invention

[Ivan Trundle]

On 16/06/2010, at 10:54 AM, Kim Holburn wrote:

>> If the people who brought us television had played by the same rules  
>> that today’s wireless carriers impose — we’d probably all be  
>> listening to the radio.

I'm strangely ambivalent about this. Historically, it's how America evolved their mobile networks, and it is grossly inefficient.

However, it works. Sometimes it doesn't (AT&T's reputation for delivery of 3G services is not stellar).

Other countries have fewer limitations, and their systems work, too.

Making significant change to these systems is difficult, if only because it is not seen as monopolistic (though it is an oligopoly/cartel, as the original article suggests) - and in any event, intervention in established systems seems completely impossible in the US (the phrase 'banking regulation' comes to mind).

Having said all that, there are MANY phones which are effectively unlocked from a particular carrier in the US, and a whole army of people dedicated to unlocking a huge range of handsets.

iT
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Ivan Trundle
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