Comments on: Are Carriers Killing Mobile Innovation?

By: Joy

Joy — Thu, 26 Apr 2007 16:42:25 +0000

Maybe they need to focus on the basics like not charging for incoming text messages. Why are we paying for incoming text messages when someone else has already paid for sending it? The rest of the world doesn’t pay for incoming messages. innovations like Peekamo.com can work much better if wireless providers help push the evolution of text messaging.

By: Alhouti

Alhouti — Thu, 26 Apr 2007 13:56:40 +0000

Mobile Wimax is not going to be any less carrier-controlled than any other flavor of 3G and 4G. Sprint, Clearwire etc. wouldn’t be interested in it if it were.

By: Martin Lawrence

Martin Lawrence — Thu, 26 Apr 2007 08:19:59 +0000

MNO's policies in Europe are similarly restrictive. Though affordable flat data rates or bucket rates are progressing nicely in recent months, MNOs don't remotely understand the concept of mobile ecosystems.

I believe Japan - and maybe Korea - are the only nations where a wireless ecosystem is flourishing.

Such policies are hurting both US and European wireless innovation potentials. And not helping the MNOs either. By clinging on to the controls, carriers wish to postpone being reduced to bitpipes. If anyone is moving things forward in Europe, it would be the Three's Xseries, which goes so far as to include / implicitely tolerate VoIP. Interestingly Three is owned by Hutchinson Whampoa; proof that Asian companies understand mobile ecosystems.

By: KR

KR — Thu, 26 Apr 2007 05:15:19 +0000

this article is right on. the internet in the US had the right ecosystem to allow for massive investment as no one owns or controls the Internet. unfortunately, the US wireless networks are a far cry from this setup.

the state of affairs with mobile carriers in the US is disturbing. the wireless carriers exert their control over mobile technology companies similar to how russia deals with their oil companies. at any given time, they can tax or terminate a mobile technology provider. if there was a google, yahoo, or youtube company in the mobile world, the wireless carriers could enforce an onerous revenue sharing requirement in exchange for the right to "use" the wireless carriers network. let's hope that technology companies rally and get support from washington to restrict this anticompetitive ecosystem. the US is already 2 years behind japan and europe and will slip further if the wireless carriers continue to provide friction to mobile adoption and innovation. case in point is paypal. they launched their paypal mobile payment system in may 2006, but were not able to work on the cingular network. this has crippled the paypal mobile roll-outs. i think that even google can not win this battle without government intervention. i am hoping that gigaom, techcrunch, the vc's and silicon valley tech giants collectively rally to level the playing field for wireless rights and access.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Thu, 26 Apr 2007 01:28:46 +0000

Yes they are. I wish I could just pay $40/month for true Internet access, like I do with my computer.

Could you imagine if there was a service tax for every website you visited. Or if certain applications were disabled because service providers didn't approve or if it were competing with their offering?

It's ridiculous. The unfortunate part is that carriers even have the nerve to disable applications provided by the manufacturer.

It's really unbelievable, especially here in Canada. I keep hoping somebody will stand up to them. At first I thought it was going to be Apple, but they just made matters worse (and added with a pretty interface).

I really hope Google steps up to the plate, when the time is right.

By: kris

kris — Wed, 25 Apr 2007 20:03:43 +0000

thats so true