Verizon Wireless to Open their Network
Nov. 27th, 2007 04:38 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
varjohaltiaVerizon Wireless is slated to open their network to phones they didn't sell. Memorable quote from the article:
Now that I finished laughing, I do have to say that the news makes me happy. Obviously they still have their own certification and testing procedures, which means that they still ultimately control what phones get on their network and can charge the phone vendors outrageous fees to "certify" their phones, but it's a significant step closer to a saner model where handset and service are decoupled. Phone companies can't dictate what landline phones we use, so why should cell phones be any different? (Of course you have been able to use unlocked GSM phones on CinguT&T, T-Mobile etc. for ages, but with no support.) Most importantly, it allows you to take your phone with you when you go from one carrier to another (within the same cell technology), and it means that you don't have to sign up for one company just because they're the only ones selling a given *cough*i*cough*phone. Well, that's the rosy hope for the future, at least, where you buy the best phone for you, and then sign up for the best service for you. Now, if only phone subsidies are made more obvious and long contracts go away...
Verizon Wireless has a track record of listening to customers and transforming entrenched
industry practices based on those customer needs.
Now that I finished laughing, I do have to say that the news makes me happy. Obviously they still have their own certification and testing procedures, which means that they still ultimately control what phones get on their network and can charge the phone vendors outrageous fees to "certify" their phones, but it's a significant step closer to a saner model where handset and service are decoupled. Phone companies can't dictate what landline phones we use, so why should cell phones be any different? (Of course you have been able to use unlocked GSM phones on CinguT&T, T-Mobile etc. for ages, but with no support.) Most importantly, it allows you to take your phone with you when you go from one carrier to another (within the same cell technology), and it means that you don't have to sign up for one company just because they're the only ones selling a given *cough*i*cough*phone. Well, that's the rosy hope for the future, at least, where you buy the best phone for you, and then sign up for the best service for you. Now, if only phone subsidies are made more obvious and long contracts go away...
