Lowell McAdam, chief executive of Verizon Wireless, says the company would agree to 700 MHz spectrum auction rules requiring the network operator who wins a portion of the spectrum to allow any device onto its network.Such a nod to the wireless equivalent of "Carterfone" suggests Verizon now believes some such requirement will be part of license rules for the 700 MHz frequencies. The compromise won't go far enough to satisfy contestants who think a mandatory wholesale regime is needed.
But the move would for the first time allow users to buy and use virtually any device of their choosing on the network. As much as wireless carriers might like to preserve their ability to lock all devices used on their networks, device independence would be quite helpful for end users, application developers and device manufacturers, since it would allow some degree of innovation without the direct cooperation of the network services provider.
Verizon draws the line at guarantees that all games, video and the Web applications on the new phones or devices will work on anything other than a best effort basis, in essence, however. Verizon also said it would reserve the right to continue blocking certain applications and features for phones it sells, if it were to operate networks under such rules.
at&t earlier had signaled that it wasn't going to stand in the way of such rules. Some people might not think half a loaf is worth having. But Carterphone was a very important advance, as this also would be. Verizon arguably would not be shifting its stance were it not convinced the move is inevitable in any case.
1 comment:
Just because Verizon would restrict apps on phones they sell doesn't mean people will buy phones from Verizon. As long as people have the choice to buy phones somewhere else and have them work on Verizon's network, I'll be happy. Of course, the same applies for any carrier.
Where are my Carterfone rules?
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