I really hope this Verizon Wireless contract of mine runs out soon. I’m not complaining about the fact that their cellular quality of service is, well, probably the best of all providers, but they’re up to their “controlling everything from end-to-end” tricks again. So now they’re suing the FCC over the terms of sale of the latest wireless spectrum. Verizon is a Dinosaur in the age of the Internet, like AOL was until they realized they didn’t have enough market power to demand people get their version of the Internet. If you never experienced AOL in its early years, you might not understand this comparison, but just imagine a world where the services of Google, Amazon, youTube, and Myspace were all provided by AOL and only by AOL and you’re getting close. Now, “do-no-evil” Internet companies are demanding the telecommunication spectrums be given what they’ve needed for years, honest competition and consumer choice.
And Verizon doesn’t like this one bit. They didn’t like me trying to sync my cell phone calendar and contacts to my Mac for a while and they sure don’t like allowing me to move my own files via bluetooth between my phone and other devices. They disable all those factory features and provide their own phone operating system. All the signs are there, Verizon wants to control all channels of access to anything that might involve their services, even when those services run through public airwaves or through public ground. Even if you don’t believe in concepts of public ownership, you rascal of an Objectivist you, you know that the FCC and other government bodies create a regulated field where there aren’t going to be more than 1 set of cable pipes, 1 set of gas lines, 1 set of sewer pipes, or 1 set of phone lines to consumer doorsteps.
Given these realities which are even more real in the electromagnetic spectrum, even libertarians can agree, Verizon is just being silly. The commercial free speech rights of an entity that can purchase the use of a physical radio spectrum from the most powerful government in the world, well, just doesn’t concern me as much as the millions of individual voices they can potentially squelch from a burgeoning global experience. Let’s hope people don’t realize how cool their wireless devices will be when given the freedom of choice on the Internet, ‘cos then Verizasaur will really be screwed.
ditch that CDMA set-up dog. i say go for the Jesus phone.