As promised, I’ve stopped writing about the mobile industry here and moved that to Skydeck’s blog. But there’s an issue of public policy relating to the wireless industry that I’d like as many people as possible to know about it.
I believe that we’d all be better off if wireless carriers were required to let us use any device on their networks, so long as it causes no harm and we pay for the bandwidth. It’s a very simple idea that has applied to landline networks for years. Without it, many inventions would never have come to market because the telcos weren’t interested or it didn’t fit their business models: the fax machine, the modem, the Internet itself.
Today on Skydeck’s blog I wrote about a useful mobile device that does not exist, because of the rules of the industry. I call it the xPhone.
I recently filed comments in support of the Skype petition, together with my friend Ram Fish. He’s written about that experience here and here. The xPhone was inspired by those conversations, as well as conversations with Tim Wu and Brad Burnham.
More urgent than the Skype petition perhaps is the battle over the rules for the 700 MHz spectrum auction. This is the most valuable chunk of spectrum that has gone on sale for years. If you support the principles described in my xPhone post, please sign the MoveOn petition.