Speaking of the Telecom Orifices (as Steve Jobs so memorably called them), Walt Mossberg holds court on a topic near to my heart as well: why are U.S. cell-phone users bound to their carriers in a sort of government-encouraged indentured servitude? Mr. Mossberg is probably a good dinner companion, especially if you get him going on this topic
Comrade Walt Mossberg.
Walt has long railed on the topic of the stifling of innovation by the U.S. cell phone carriers–especially to me over dinner when I am really tired– -so it is nice to see it in a terrific piece you should not miss.
[From Mossberg: Hero of the People United Against the Soviet Ministries, Oops, I Mean Cell Phone Carriers | BoomTown | Kara Swisher]
Mossberg writes:
It’s intolerable that the same country that produced all this has trapped its citizens in a backward, stifling system when it comes to the next great technology platform, the cellphone.Oh, and engadget has a fun image illustration of Mr. Mossberg, worth a visit....
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.
Whether you are a consumer, a hardware maker, a software developer or a provider of cool new services, it’s hard to make a move in the American cellphone world without the permission of the companies that own the pipes. 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.
The Soviet Ministry Model
That’s why I refer to the big cellphone carriers as 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.
[From Free My Phone | Mossblog | Walt Mossberg]
