Comments on: Verizon opening door to mobile future

Company's decision to open network to different devices and applications highlights the realization that it will have to give up the iron-fisted control of its network to let the next generation of mobile computers proliferate.

[NWLB]

All this has happened before, and will happen again.

They'll drool over the idea of sucking money out of the pockets of serious data users. Until they realize they've tried this before, and in the end, nobody used the services until they weren't charged by the bit, kilobyte, and megabyte.

I wonder if net neutrality will factor into this, as they might try to punish high-bandwidth users or charge them more. Or more likely, punish content providers by putting the brakes on their content.

RCIfan.com

[k2dave]

I agree, charging by the byte is not reasonable

I agree, charging by the byte is not a reasonable business model anymore, nor connection time. Some things like streaming video are bandwidth intensive and require a connection that is held for a long time, but for most people unimportant distractions (entertainment), voice or text communication is very small in terms of bandwidth and connection time, but that is the key services they need to bang the consumer with high prices.

If they charge for bytes or connection time they will kill their own market because no one will use their service for entertainment, reducing the appeal of their devices and services.

[adamopolis]

This is how it's always been...

....in the rest of the world! Which is why the rest of the world seem to have far more reliable networks, cheaper access, widespread adoption, innovative services etc... It's high time the networks stopped being able to control and suck money out of consumers - I thought the US was supposed to be a proponent of open standards and networks?

[maartsen]

Had it for years.

I have had this capability for many many years. It is called GSM. The service is provided here by AT&T Wireless, and T-Mobile. Any unlocked GSM phone works with their service, with any application I care to load, and any feature the physical phone supports. 85% of all mobile phones in the world use that standard. Am I missing something here?

[atish505]

CDMA is dead

Anyone building apps to run on CDMA devices is wasting their time.

The world has and is moving to GSM. It now has more than 82% of the market compared to 14% for CDMA (and declining by the day).

Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Siemens-BenQ, Pantech amongst others have stopped making CDMA devices. Apple did not bother to even come out with it.

It is a loose loose situation in CDMA world.

[bdennis410]

Access, Access, Access

Like forcing Cable to offer a la carte "content", AND reasonably priced access to it's infrastructure (pending?), telcos may see the writing on the wall regarding serving two masters.
Are you a content provider or a pipeline provider?
Cable does both by reselling content, when really we need to force cable and telco to accept "all comers" (content providers) who meet the technical standards at a reasonable access price.
Verizon, and the other telcos, must get to the point of realizing they are infrastructure providers, no longer need access subsidies, are entitled to nothing except an opportunity to compete in the marketplace. How do they compete? By offering a la carte services that subscribers want, as well as packages. By not restricing content through pricing merchanisms that deter content competition.
Some people, incluing politicians and regulators now are beginning to see the reality of bandwidth charges; similar to utility usage rates, bandwidth usage charges offer a real opportunity for all kinds of content, data, voice, video, whatever, to be sold in a way that allows competitive pricing AND access.
The marketplace then decides who the content"winners" are through the process of buying what they want, and avoiding what they don't. Cable has always enjoyed the "packaging" of content, since that allows them to raise prices willy-nilly. Let consumers choose the amount and types of "content" they want, and then we'll have a real system, a world standard of communications, data, and entertainment "content" that each achieves the penetration it deserves through the tried and true free marketplace process.
We are punishing our democratic, capitalistic society when we allow monopolies of any kind, and worse, allow monopolies without true and honest regulation of access.
A truly competitive marketplace would never have allowed cable to enjoy the monopoly it has for all this time.
Remember when AT&Twas broken up to allow long distance competion-the result-up to 95% cheaper LD rates AND more services.
Apply that to Cable and WOW!

[Quemannn]

US Rank in download speed

According to OECD, Japan, France and South Korea topped the download speed of over 40Mbps,though they are advertised rates. On the other hand, USA ranked the 14th after Germany, with the download speed of less than 10Mbps. Thanks a lot for the walled gardens that have detered the download speed in USA.
Now, big carriers are waking up to the critical need of survival and the crumbling sound of walled gardens.