For those of you who haven't seen it today, the normally mild-mannered and gadget-oriented Walt Mossberg has this piece that rails against the U.S. mobile phone system and how wireless carriers restrict the kind of mobile devices and applications that consumers can use.
Here's a sample paragraph of Walt's screed:
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. 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.
He even goes so far as to call the big wireless carriers (AT&T, Verizon Wireless, T-Mobile, Sprint) "the Soviet Ministries."
Like the old bureaucracies of communism, they sit athwart the market, breaking the link between the producers of goods and services and the people who use them. To some extent, they try to replace the market system, and, like the real Soviet ministries, they are a lousy substitute. They decide what phones can be used on their networks and what software and services can be offered on those phones.
In short, Mossberg is mad about how stupid the U.S. is when it comes to cell phones. The surprising spleen that Walt vents even prompted Mathew Ingram to welcome the influential WSJ columnist to the blogosphere because the piece really does read more like something written by a particularly riled blogger than the usually straightforward consumer tech reviewer.
This outburst will surely play into the hands of Google and others who pushed the FCC into incorporating open access provisions in the upcoming 700 MHz auctions (which Verizon is now seeking to invalidate). After all, if the current state of the U.S. cell phone industry makes Mossberg mad as hell, the feds are playing with fire if they don't force mobile carriers to open up.
Cynthia Brumfield at 1:14 PM|Comments(0)
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