Support Our Site
Get Better Gear!
- Notability For iPad: Much More Than A Note Taking App from Ginger Labs, Inc, US$0.99
- Scosche’s RH656m Headphones With Microphone Are Wonderful from Scosche, US$129.99
- IPEVO’s Typi Folio Case & Keyboard for iPad is First-rate from IPEVO, US$79.99
- Scosche’s boomSTREAM BT Speaker: Features & Compromises from Scosche, US$99.95
- FX Photo Studio HD: iPad Painting of Effects Made Easy from MacPhun LLC, US1.99
Top 5 Free Apps
iTunes New Music Releases
Top 5 Paid Apps
Discover New Music
- The Dresden Dolls
The energetic duet of Amanda Palmer and Brian Viglione that make up the Dresden Dolls have created a wonderfully haunting sound in their self-titled album. They have been able to construct an imme
- Bauhaus
Go Away White is an album I've been waiting more than 20 years to hear, and the good news is that it was worth the wait. The latest -- and last, no...for real this time -- album from
The Last 5 Years (2002 Off-Broadway Cast)
- Jason Robert Brown
- The soundtrack to this moving off-broadway musical is heart moving. The lyrics follow a couple in a relationship for five years, one point of view going forward in time, and the other tracing time fr
- World Party
- Red Hot Chili Peppers
Reader Specials
Visit Deals On The Web for the best deals on all consumer electronics, iPods, and more!
News
Mossberg: Cellphone Carriers are Soviet Ministries
Sunday, October 21st, 2007 at 4:00 PM - by John Martellaro
The federal government has been bullied by the big wireless carriers, and, as a result, the U.S. is the laughtingstock of the mobile technology world, according to Walt Mossberg at the Wall Street Journal on Monday.
Mr. Mossberg compared the PC industry, which is a model of digital capitalism to the mobile phone system which has "trapped its citizens in a backward, stifling system when it comes to the next great technology platform, the cellphone," the noted WSJ writer observed.
While ISPs in the U.S. simply charge for bandwidth, the big wireless carriers control every aspect of the mobile phone usage. "Whether you are a consumer, a hardware maker, a software developer or a provider of cool new services, its hard to make a move in the American cellphone world without the permission of the companies that own the pipes," Mr. Mossberg lamented. "While power in other technology sectors flows to consumers and nimble entrepreneurs, in the cellphone arena it remains squarely in the hands of the giant carriers.
As a result, Mr. Mossberg refers to the big cell phone carriers as the "Soviet Ministries." Like those old bureaucracies, they break the link between the producers and the consumers.
"...Apple had to make a deal with the devil to gain the freedom to offer an unimpaired product directly to users. It gave AT&T exclusive rights to be the iPhones U.S. network for an undisclosed period of years. It has locked and relocked the phone to make sure consumers cant override that restriction," Mr. Mossberg noted.
The federal government, according to Mr. Mossberg, deserves the blame here. Not only have they failed to insure a free market, but they failed to set a single wireless standard, such as [Europe did with] GSM, didnt requires CDMA phones to have a removable SIM card, and have allowed the carriers to lock the SIM card to their service.
Mr. Mossberg recalled the time when AT&T controlled the land lines in the U.S. and customers couldnt connect their own phones to it. Eventually, the federal government broke up that market, and it didnt collapse. If the federal government, or another disruptive technology, were to do the same with cellphones, a free market would also thrive, Mr. Mossberg said.
Recent Headlines
- Reading, Writing, & Saving the World
- Free Retro Gaming for iOS - Activision’s Kaboom!
- Apple Adds Chomp Bits to iOS 6 App Store Discovery
- Notability For iPad: Much More Than A Note Taking App
- Scosche’s RH656m Headphones With Microphone Are Wonderful
- Tim Cook & Larry Page Reportedly Discuss Patents
- Analysis: Amazon Kindle Fire Sold Out, Kindle Fire 2 Pic Leaked
Post Your Comments