Spectrum of Greed

Great device - no freedom

The Palm Pre - Sprint phone is just one more in the “pick your network provider by picking your device” disaster that defines the US wireless marketplace.  Instead of being able to say, “I would like an iPhone, and I would like to use Verizon”, or “I would like a Palm Pre, and I would like to use AT&T”, we are left with having to prioritize.  Would we rather pick our network first, then decide which phone we must settle for, or the other way around?  For business and consumers, this is very frustrating.  For cellular business providers, it is a way of life.  But there is one market opening concession to consumers in the Pre that makes it VERY exciting. (continue reading…)

America’s wireless economy demonstrates the best and the worst in the American business landscape. True, we have some of the best communications infrastructure in the world. A base that served us very well in the twentieth century. And yes, I did mean the twentieth century.

As we move forward in the twenty-first century, we are seeing a growing requirement for always on, immediately recoverable communications systems. The advent of high availability systems and their distribution into business and everyday life is driving these new requirements. Perhaps the most relevant example is our financial industry, where online processing and ATM’s require communications networks to be available in order to provide even a basic level of operation. (continue reading…)

You can't get on these networks with that phone!

…Turns out his watch phone was the hang up.  He didn’t get clearance with the network Nazi’s in the US before flashing his wireless wrist piece.  There are two products at CES this year in the Nerdy phone / watch category.  One by LG, and one by a company called Neutrano.  Neither of these companies are talking about introducing their product in the US, because they haven’t been invited yet.  These kind of innovations could either succeed or die on their own merits in an open wireless market.  The closed system we have here in the US doesn’t allow for these things to come in without negotiating an invitation with one of the gatekeepers.  And of course that admission won’t be free, even if they are willing to entertain your product.  Does this increase the risk to an entrpreneur trying to market a new product?  Yup.  I know several companies that no longer exist - casualties of the gatekeepers indifference.  To them, it just doesn’t matter.

Just a few short months ago, a group of misty eyed cellular phone trail blazers and their adoring hangers-on gathered in Chicago to celebrate the start of an institution that is at least ten years beyond its expiration date.  In the good old days before the portable phone,  the concept of a technology called the internet was barely on the horizon.  Cellular was born of the traditional land line phone and the radio hand set. People needed to communicate while they were on the move, and cellular was a giant step in the right direction. (continue reading…)