Professor singles out mobile carriers for stifling cellphone innovation
by Brian White 
posted Feb 21st 2007 at 3:30PM
Do you believe that mobile carriers are to controlling in the actual design (hardware and software) of cellular handsets these days? If so, you'll probably love an opinion paper by Columbia law professor Timothy Wu. Wu suggests that cellphone design and innovation is being inhibited by cellular service providers. We all know why this happens, of course -- the carriers love the walled garden policy of controlling how and why subscribers use their handsets. Usually, the design of a carrier-branded handset is geared to goose subscribers into more services and more add-ons. But, the GSM world knows all to well that "free and open" handsets don't have these annoyances at all, much to the chagrin of the carriers (like AT&T and T-Mobile USA). Are the policies of carriers hurting consumers? Wu makes his case by bringing up features that are blocked by many carriers which come native with many handsets before being disabled by carriers. Features like WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS, advanced SMS, browsers and photo and sound file transfer capabilities. The biggie that caught our eyes? Real-time call timers. You go, Mr. Wu -- stick it to the man.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Jared Rapp @ Feb 21st 2007 3:48PM
THANK YOU PROFESSOR WU. This guy is not kidding. Now if only anyone actually cared.... :-\
glento @ Feb 21st 2007 3:57PM
This is so true. Having worked in the telecommunications world for a few years, the carriers have a choke hold over cell phone technology. Just look at the differences in phones coming from Europe and especially Asia. We are way behind both in cell phone tech and infrastructure. Verizon doesnt even enable java on their phones. Couple that with the restrictive policies of the carriers if you just want to upgrade your phone. With new technology coming every 6 months in phones, why do I have to wait two years before I can get a new phone?
MajorXero @ Feb 21st 2007 4:07PM
"to" and "too" are two different words with two different definitions. Who's this guy's editor?
Randy @ Feb 21st 2007 4:15PM
While I can understand that cariiers cut you a break on the price of the phone for a 1 or 2 year commitment, what I don't understand is why the carriers go a step further and need to disable any features on any phones. That upsets me. And its this carrier exclusivity B.S. is what perpetuates it.
Todd @ Feb 21st 2007 4:20PM
w00t! w00t!
We need a viral video that spreads like "Dick-in-a-box" but conveys the information in Professor Wu's paper.
Rise up people!
LordObento @ Feb 21st 2007 5:15PM
Good bye free phones. Hello Full-retail
irrread @ Feb 21st 2007 4:30PM
Funny how the phone pictured suffers from none of the problems listed in the article. T-Mobile and Windows Mobile have their plusses.
Cactus @ Feb 21st 2007 5:41PM
I wouldn't lump all the carriers in this evil basket. For instance, there's a long jump between Verizon's "all your handset are belong to us" and its CDMA rival Sprint.
I'm all for disconnecting the handset market from carriers... but since most joe-schmo customers now fully expect technical support from their carrier when they mess up their handset, is it really feasible in this country? The manufacturers would have to kick up their support operations...
db @ Feb 22nd 2007 11:08AM
This is sooo true. My bf had a T809 from T-Mobile (it's probably called something else outside of the U.S.) and found out that the phone could originally read PDFs and all kinds of Microsoft documents but somehow T-Mobile has disabled these features. It wasn't until he tried to update the firmware on the phone that these features eventually became usable. Like what was the point in disabling this feature in the first place?
orfo26 @ Feb 21st 2007 6:44PM
Well, people will need to learn one way or another. When their TV breaks down they surely don't call the cable company for support (oh, wait, there are idiots that actually do). This is really the key difference between North America and the rest of the world. Good god, your handset is not a Verizon brand, it's actually made somewhere in Asia (most likely) and those people even bothered to put their name on the damn phone.
adam @ Feb 21st 2007 8:34PM
finally somebody educated comes out and says it! just look at verizon's phones, they have the craptastic UI and i know for the longest time they did not enable the OBEX or DUN bluetooth profiles, if they even are now, i'm not sure so i won't say either way. i do have to say though, its amazing how dumb wireless reps can be. i went into a cingular store with a verizon branded plantronics headset hoping they might have a charger for it. the rep tried to tell me that verizon's bluetooth was not compatible with cingular's bluetooth. i about started laughing right there in the store at how dumb that sounded.
the entire wireless industry in the US needs to clean up its act, plain and simple.
tnkgrl @ Feb 21st 2007 8:35PM
Well, duh!
Tamir Cassel @ Feb 22nd 2007 11:45AM
One word for this article "VERIZON"
Frankenstein Black @ Feb 22nd 2007 5:04PM
Don’t you get it WU? (Say’s the addict). Us Americans are addicted to the US Mobile Operator’s subsidy crack! Have been since the late 80’s. HEY, WE DON’T WANT TO PAY FULL PRICE FOR PHONES! It is sad, but like true addicts it will take time and a lot of rehab to wean us off it. Imagine paying $299 for a RAZR? NOW GO AWAY! (Drool, sniff, drool, drool, nod ;^(...
nick c @ Feb 23rd 2007 8:19PM
Tamir, you are right on point. Verizon has the worst UI, which restricts the phones and their capabilities, and it is so horrible to use, even for simple tasks. American carriers also have their hit phones, which are just appealing skin-deep, no really great features, other than maybe a few good features, but nothing like what Europe or Japan has.
And Frankenstein, why would you even want a RAZR?
elgee02 @ Feb 23rd 2007 9:17PM
Funny how everyone says how "horrible" the VZW UI is and how it "cripples" the phones... I swear people just say that for no other reason than to say it anymore. My enV supports bluetooth A2DP, DUN, OBEX, expandable memory for mp3 and wma playback. Text messaging is a breeze (anyone who says texting on the VZW UI is a moron, it's not rocket science) and so is finding anything else I need on the menu.
But what speaks the loudest volumes is the fact I deal with hundreds of customers a month, and hardly EVER do I hear any complaints about the UI. Pretty much the only people who bitch about the VZW UI are other carriers fanboys.