Forgive me if I sound hyperfocused. I am. So Dave Winer’s series of posts today about the State of the Platform resonated with me, particularly this:
The great thing about the Internet was and is that it’s the platform without a platform vendor. That’s why it has been the engine of growth and innovation for so long, over thirty years now.
While it’s true that the Internet doesn’t have a platform vendor, it certainly has gatekeepers, aka Internet Service Providers.
And wireless companies really have the lock on the platform and the access these days. My biggest frustration with the new Samsung Blackjack is that I’m barred from viewing YouTube videos (or any videos for that matter, that I don’t download on my PC and copy over to the phone itself.). The YouTube barrier is the platform itself — AT&T appears to block any streaming video over my supposed unlimited access connection that doesn’t come from their video service. And BTW their video service hasn’t worked once on my phone — I get “we’re currently having problems” messages whenever I try to access it.
Google is trying to open up the wireless market to an open platform, but the FCC only gave a half-hearted hat tip to the effort yesterday by permitting closed access and closed networks on the wireless spectrum being auctioned in January. Had the FCC mandated an open access/network policy, we might have moved closer to having a platform without a platform vendor. As it is, AT&T and Verizon will suck up yet more bandwidth to control.
In case any of you have qualms about net neutrality, just check what you can do with your wireless phones which are supposedly connected to the Internet. You are not connected to the Internet that Dave describes, you’re connected to the Internet that Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, and T-Mobile own — the one that tells you what you may and may not view on their platform and equipment that you pay for.
So Dave, is there any hope for a wireless platform that is a platform without a vendor? How do we get there?
Technorati Tags: wireless, wireless internet, AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, FCC, open platform, open access, Dave Winer
