Cellphones – Page 2 – Chris Wolfe

Cutting the cord

My family, not long ago and after much research and a nagging sense of FUD, finally cancelled our home landline phone. It was equal feelings of “Oh man, what if there’s an emergency and we can’t call 911!?!?!” and “Stick it, CenturyTel, I’m keeping my money!” But I think we made a good decision, and here are several reasons why.

The biggest hold out for us from going cellphone-only was the “emergency” need for a phone line. That’s the thing about having a landline, you can pretty much count on there ALWAYS being a dial-tone. Example scenarios (yeah, the mind can think up a LOT of schtuff like this):

I and/or my wife are home with the kids, and one or both of us were incapacitated, how would the kids call 911 quickly?
We have a house fire, everyone get out quick! Could we call 911?
Wife and I are on a date, kids are at home, can we be sure they can call us in an emergency?

What if the cell service were down or the cell phone didn’t work?! Can you realistically count on a cell phone working all the time? What if it loses power? What if the electricity is off for days on end, how will you charge it?

Here’s what we decided. We’ve had three cellular lines for some time (mine, wife’s, and for another family member), and worked it out last year so that we would have that third line/phone at our home almost all the time. This has become our “emergency” line, since that phone very rarely leaves the house, and is definitely there when my wife and I are both gone from home. That phone has a great battery and can go like four days of being constantly on, and I bet if we kept it turned off (like during an extended power outage) except to make a call or two, it could go a couple weeks with enough juice. Add to that our other two phones, and I think that’s covered. (Note to self, get a big 2Kva UPS for the computers and to stand-in in the event of a long power outage.)

I also can’t forget that we’ve got many neighbors nearby. If I conk myself out or have some sort of debilitating physical issue, it’s going to take an ambulance or first-responder quite a few minutes to get to me. So the minute or so it takes for someone in the house to run over to a neighbors house (IF none of three cell phones in the house will work) probably isn’t going to make much difference anyway. Say we had a fire and all had to get out of the house quickly and can’t call 911, I bet that extra minute running over to the neighbors wouldn’t make that much difference either.

Those are just a couple examples. It’s really playing the odds game. What are the odds that some event will happen where you MUST make a call out, and THREE phones are not working OR the cell tower is down AND you can’t find a neighbor home?

(As an aside, I talked with our local emergency response office that handles 911 calls about how well cell phones work, and if I could somehow register my address with them. They didn’t have the option of linking my home address with the cell number, but they seemed assured that they could triangulate the phone’s position if they were called. I think this is dubious of the phone is inside my home, unless cell phones use some “magic” form of GPS that can penetrate building structures. Oh well.)

I hate to mention this right after a paragraph that takes into consideration our human lives… but this point affects me in the wallet. 🙂 We’ve been dumping probably around an average of $28 a month over to CenturyTel or the previous phone carrier since… well, since forever. That’s just for basic service, no extras. Since my wife and I have had cell phones since at least 2002, we’ve been paying on that, too. True, considering the level of cell phone service back then, and the poor coverage even up til this past year, we couldn’t have gone cell-phone-only any sooner than now. It’s just such a great feeling to use that $28 every month for some other budget area! Everyone likes to save!

On a social aspect of killing off our landline, I hated answering that phone. I would bet that 95% of the time, it was a call for my wife. I don’t mind not being popular, trust me! 🙂 So I was for the vast majority of the time passing the phone to her, or having to take a note to give to her later. How many times I SO wanted to say “Can you just call her on her cell phone?” It was a relief to tell people, after we cancelled the landline, if you want my wife, here’s her number. If you want me, here’s my number. The third number we don’t give out at all. Sweet deal!

Along with this, we had to decide which number we needed to put down for business use. It didn’t take much of an argument (from me) for us to decide that it should be my wife’s phone. Sweet, again! I dallied with the option of setting up a virtual number, like Google Talk, to use as our “home” number for businesses to call us. My thinking was that it wouldn’t be a “real” number and had options like to send all calls to voicemail if we wanted, and could also do call-blocking, but my wife thought it was irrelevant. I see her point… now that we have number portability, her number will always be hers, like mine will always be mine. I’m just protective of my number and only want family and friends and people at work to have it.

WP7 is out

News flash!

[http://cwflyris.computerworld.com/t/7006554/133557294/343176/0/]

Lack of buzz on WP7 raises questions about sales
Windows Phone 7 smartphones have been on sale for more than three weeks in the U.S. and seem to be producing little buzz and only so-so sales.

And this is news because . . . ??

Windows Phone 7

So Microsoft has been announcing new phones running their new mobile OS Windows Phone 7. HTC is fully behind it and will have as many WP7 phones as they do Android. I’ve looked at the commercials and reviews of the OS, and my reaction is, “Meh.” What’s the point? It’s already 2010, the iPhone has been out like 3 1/2 years, and this is finally MS’s competitive mobile phone? Sure, the animation of the screen design looks a bit new and fresh, but there is absolutely nothing I’ve seen so far that would make me even think about switching from iPhone. If I were to jump platforms (and there’s no possibility of this, at the current time), it would be to Android. And not AT&T’s variety of Android, so this would be a bigger decision for me than just going to a new phone, it would also mean a carrier jump.

So I predict that the WP7 will be around for awhile but will never get more than 5 to 10% market share. MS, with their deep pockets, will push it for a time. But they’ll never be a worthy competitor.

Cell phone from 1977

What could have been…

Credits:

[http://www.behance.net/gallery/ALT1977-WE-ARE-NOT-TIME-TRAVELERS/545221]

A Decade of Tech

Around Christmas-time back in December and during our celebrating the beginning of 2010, I started thinking about the computery, gadgety, techy goodies that I so enjoy, that we didn’t have (or barely had) back at the beginning of year 2000. Since we have so much technology now that we take for granted, I wanted to make a note for posterity. The day will come when we can’t imagine our lives without these benefits, even as our memory fades of how we lived before they came along. Already I know I and my wife wonder how we got along without cell phones, not having the ability to “reach out and touch” anyone anywhere at any time. This has also been our family “decade” for having kids, and so I know for them the personal computer has been a constant all of their young lives. Will some of what I list below be in their oldest and fondest memories of electrical gadgetry?

Here’s my list of the best from the past 10 years:

Digital Video Recorder (DVR): I honestly can’t remember the last time I scheduled myself to watch a show live on TV. To me that would be a horrible waste of time to watch a one or two hour show, and be beholden to the time frame that some producer schmuck decided was best for his ratings for a show to air. To be stuck to watching little 7 or 8 minutes segments of a show around which I have to get something to eat, or get the kids ready for bed, or take a leak. That falls under my definition of retardity! TiVo really kicked off the DVR revolution, but being the cheapskate hacker I am, about five years ago I built my own dvr box out of an old PC with a nice TV adapter card (the only part I bought) running Linux. Such liberation! So many options! So many commercials to be skipped!! I could schedule a show to record while sitting at my desk at work. I could even schedule a whole season of shows to record automatically. The rise of the DVR marked the beginning of the end of broadcast television as we know it.

BitTorrent: While the DVR changed how and when I watched television, my method of acquiring shows has changed just as much. Along with the rise of the DVR is also the mainstream use of bittorrent. Yes, it can be used to download movies, music, and software illegally. I cast no stones. But for TV shows, it gets a bit murky for me. I could set up the DVR to record shows and watch them, skipping the commercials. I also could use BT to download shows to the DVR that have the commercials cropped out. The downloaded shows transfer to my laptop quite easily so that I’m even not attached to the TV itself. Let’s say that I choose what is most expedient.

High Speed Internet: And of course, what good would bitorrent be without fast internet access? Sure, we had high speed 10 years ago, but today it’s about 10 times faster and the price is not much more than it used to be back then. We also have better options, with cable and DSL offered to most homes close to town and satellite for the unfortunate county folks. The US still lags behind some of the Asian countries (Japan is getting 100Mb/s to the home?!?) but at least some of the phone companies like Verizon are stepping up and getting more fiber to the curb. It’s great to see the cable companies and the telcos fighting each other to give consumers more options. And it’s only been in these past few years that the “triple-plays” (internet, phone, television) have been worthy and affordable options.

Smartphones: This would have to be my personal, all-time favorite category from the past decade. In my view, the growth and acceptance of regular cell phones in the past 10 years, and now smartphones in these recent years, is what has really changed people at an integral level. By smartphones I refer to the class of phones that have PIM options, internet access and sometimes wifi, can download new software, and have full QWERTY keyboards (hard or soft). Cell phones are now so integrated into our lives, we think of them like electricity or water service in our homes. We feel naked and vulnerable if we leave home without them. They might cause cancer? We are more than willing to take the risk (besides, the smarties keep proving and disproving that fact… just like the detriments/benefits of coffee!). Most kids down to age five have them now; they’re ubiquitous. The jump from “dumb” phone to smartphone was complete in 2007 when Apple released the first iPhone. Simply said, this phone absolutely dominates the smartphone market at least here in the US and is spreading around the world. I have always been after “One Gadget To Rule Them All” and I think the iPhone fits that almost perfectly (given the level of technology we have today). Sure, there are many people who are content with a normal cell phone that lets them talk to people, and perhaps do a little texting. But the iPhone and Android and Windows Mobile phones give you access to so much more information… all only a few keystrokes away. Any time you need it.

Global Positioning Systems / GPS: Thanks you, tech gods, for giving me a device that means I never again have to ask for directions! =D Surely I jest, but this is a class of devices that is so practical and fun, I can’t imagine not having it. I got a portable Garmin GPS device four or five years ago and I still remember the fascination of taking it on a trip and being able to watch it record a track of every point along the way. It told us how far we’d gone and how far we had to go… and how long it would take to get there. It told me how soon and when to turn (or turn around!). It gave me POI along the way. It could mark exactly the tent site where we camped or the hotel where we stayed. We also quickly got into geocaching which is awesome for family togetherness, and one of our favorite things to do when we travel. It is also pretty cool, after getting back from a trip, to plug in the recorded tracks to Google maps and show exactly where we were. Again, the GPS is such a practical device, it’s hard to imagine not having it. Many vehicles have it built-in now, and the day will come when it is a standard option. Please come quickly…

MP3 players: Lastly, the humble digital music player. The first one I ever had was won at a tech demo from one of our company VARs. 256MB of digital goodness, baby! Of course, at an average of 4MB per MP3 file, it didn’t hold more than a few albums… but still! Music that was infinitely reproducable, would never degrade, which I had copies of on all my computers, and could now carry in my pocket. I could listen to my music at home, at work, on a plane, in the van. Of course the memory sizes and types of MP3 players have skyrocketed in the intervening years (again, Apple raised the bar early on and still dominates to this day), but it’s just so cool to know that all the tunes I want are really only an earbud away. Any time, anywhere.
— – —
All in all, a great decade for tech that makes life more interesting and, well, more fun. Here’s to 2020 and what we’ll take for granted in those future days!

WinMo No Mo

After a long run with Windows Mobile, I am done and done. It took a fair amount of deliberation, but I decided to go the Apple fanboy route and get an iPhone 3GS… and I can hardly begin to put in words how absolutely glad I am that I switched! For the past several months I have been able to play with the iPhone a little here and there, as several people I know have the phones and were more than happy to demonstrate all the things the phone does so quickly and so beautifully. And that’s what finally won me over… just how easy and intuitive it is to work with this thing! It really IS like a breath of fresh air in using a smart phone, not having to worry about using a stylus or fingernail (my long-time method of screen operations) for selecting an arrow or a micro “OK” or “X” button on the screen or even hitting the hardware Back button. No having to navigate through a Start menu or Programs list, all apps are just a swipe or two away. And one button to get back to the main springboard screen. Easy! While I can’t say it is a perfect phone, this is as close to one that I’ve ever had.

This ease-of-use comes down to probably the biggest transition for me, switching from a 320×240 resistive screen to a phone with a 480×320 capacitive screen. This is what takes you from a stylus to a finger touch. It’s so liberating and intuitive to use finger gestures to work my way around the iPhone’s springboard interface and also inside the applications. This is really what separates the “old-school” phones with the next generation ones. The future does NOT include a stylus! As a quick fer instance, to make a phone call is as easy as a swipe and a few finger taps. My old phone required about twice that many operations, especially if I was calling someone not in my main contacts page or speed dial list. And absolutely forget trying to do all that one-handed! The larger screen also has more real estate for web pages, emails, ebooks, etc., and the denser pixel count also looks better overall.

One if my hesitations with going iPhone was the lack of a physical keyboard, like I’ve had on my last two WinMo phones. But I have found, to my amazement and pleasure, that the on-screen keyboard is easier to use and I’m faster and more accurate using it even with the one finger, hunt-n-peck method than I was with my old phone’s keyboard! Even in portrait mode, it is quite usable… and being able to rotate the phone and have the screen automatically rotate to the larger keyboard is SO SO welcome in my world. There was just something about having to slide out my old phone’s keyboard and wait that second or two for the screen to rotate that just got to be so annoying. My old phone was also continuously popping up the onscreen keyboard in portrait mode when it thought I needed to do some text input. Again, annoying, because then I’d have click on that infuriatingly small keyboard button at the bottom of the screen to make it go away. Good riddance!!

Apps… need I say more? There are now over 100,000 available for the iPhone. I know I won’t even use a fraction of that, but having such a choice is awesome. As they say, there really IS an app for that. On the WinMo side, let’s see… oh, they just launched the Windows Mobile “app store” which is clunky and most developers don’t like. Ah, and you have to have a WinMo 6.5 phone to use it (oh I forgot they “back-ported” it to 6.1 too now, win!). Wow, now that’s a compelling reason to upgrade. But let’s talk about the CAB file method of installing software. It’s not bad, but there were many times I would click on a link in PocketIE to download and install a CAB file, and the stupid browser would start loading the file like it was a web page! Lots of binary code! Ok, so it’s finally downloaded, so you open it, Do you want to install this? It hasn’t been signed! Where do you want to install it? Oh, your phone RAM is getting low, better install to the SD card, but wait, the developer says it’s more stable if it’s installed in the phone’s RAM… blah blah blah.

Install an iPhone app: tap tap done. Backed up in iTunes.

But, how can I like a phone that’s so locked down? Simple, I did a jailbreak on it. The first jailbreak for the 3GS was released not long ago (I got my phone like only a week before… good timing!) and it opens the world for setting up your iPhone for how YOU want it to look. My personal favorite is the ability to show email, sms, and calendar info on the lock screen, so at a glance you can see what’s going on and what you need to check. Of course there are gobs of themes out there to let you deck out and “decorate” your phone, but I like to keep it simple. What’s really great is that this is in addition to using the Apple app store, it just adds on other software sources. The downside is that it voids your warranty… but I’m willing to risk it.

And battery life… I was worried that even going with the iPhone I’d only get about a day’s worth of juice on an overnight charge (this preconception came after talking with my iPhone compadres). That’s what my old phone was doing, even with push email turned off and no wifi or gps running. Well, to its credit, that phone was approaching two years of continuous use on the original battery, but even in its prime it still HAD to have a nightly charge. The iPhone, on the other hand, is doing excellent with battery life! I can easily go two full days of average use and still be rockin’ at 25-30% charge. I know it’s fresh and new and these batteries fall off over time, but I’m really happy with it right now.

One other tipping point was the fact that Microsoft is only just now starting to come out with phones running WinMo 6.5, and are planning v7 late next year. There was nothing in 6.5 to make me want to upgrade (from 6.1) just to have it, and v7 is sounding like it’s where the first iPhone was back in 2007. (As a quick aside, most WinMo phones are NOT fully upgradable… my old phone only went from v5.0 originally to 6.0 to 6.1, no chance of 6.5 working on it. The iPhone? Even the most recent release can install on a Gen 1!) (Another aside… there are 6.5 ROMs that DO work on my old phone, but they are FAR from official.) I had a previous post here on the blog about the first capacitive screen WinMo phone, the HD2, coming out early next year. It does look intriguing and the size and resolution of that screen looks absolutely gorgeous, but it only shines because HTC put their own interface over the default WinMo apps. (Also looks like only T-Mobile will carry it, bummer.) There are the same, old, boring, crappy applications, especially for mail. My other strong leaning was the HTC TouchPro2 which is out now, but you know, after watching several videos of people using it and seeing how the good stuff was still tied to the HTC TouchFlo3D interface (which I’ve never been fond of), it just wasn’t enough.

So, guess I just have to say, sorry, Windows Mobile. We had a lot of fun and Microsoft could have taken you to such heights. It’s too bad they didn’t make you a priority years ago, especially when Apple first dropped the iPhone bomb. They have the money, developers, talent, (shrinking) market share, EVERYthing they need, but no vision. Now, even when there are inklings that they’ve finally seen the light, it is too little and much too late. Of course, I’ll keep watch on the WinMo world to see how it develops, but since the iPhone feels like a new and liberated world for me, I can’t see ever going back. I’m quite content and happy with that.

Remember this mantra, Microsoft: It – Just – Works.

[2009.12.01 addition: Just came across this post [http://www.mobilitysite.com/2009/12/droid-iphone-or-hd2-which-would-i-choose/] from Chris Leckness on MobilitySite.com, he compares the iPhone 3Gs, HTC HD2, and Droid… and basically sums up a lot of what I’m thinking. iPhone is still the best.]

Dilemma

The HTC Leo / HD2 looks terribly awesome, but no hints yet on when it will (if ever) come to the US. AT&T will have this little beaut, the Tilt2, available this month. So tempting.

WinMo goodness…

The hotness…

“The HD2 is confirmed as having a 480×800 WVGA screen and a slim 11mm shell. It’s powered by a hugely powerful 1Ghz Snapdragon CPU. The HD2 also has 448MB RAM, 512MB ROM, WiFi, Bluetooth 2.1 with EDR and A2DP, 5 megapixel camera with dual LED flash, G-sensor, compass, GPS, 3.5mm audio jack and a microSD expansion.”

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/coolsmartphone/huIR/~3/PoEOPbxn43w/news5139.html

Photo from SlashGear

More phone than player

I see a lot of people with iPhones, but rarely see them listening to music on them. Guess that’s more of a side benefit since it’s more about the apps now.

Wireless Carriers

The following is as article from Mike Elgan posted on ComputerWorld on 2009.08.15. I couldn’t agree more.
—
Wireless carriers: 10 things I hate about you

The companies that provide cell phone voice and data make their billions by cheating. They must be stopped.
Mike Elgan

The consumer electronics scene in the U.S. is wonderful and horrible at the same time. The devices, technologies and innovation are wonderful. The provision of wireless access is horrible. U.S. carriers are some of the most backward, unscrupulous and anti-customer companies in the nation.

So, carriers, this column’s for you. Here’s what I hate about how you do business.

1. You overcharge for service
A recent survey by Nielsen found that low prices for wireless service is the No. 1 thing customers want from carriers. Yet this is exactly what U.S. customers aren’t getting. According to a new survey from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the U.S. is in the top three most expensive countries for wireless service worldwide (Canada and Spain are the others). According to the report, Americans pay an average of $635.85 per year for cell phone service (compared with $131.44 per year in the Netherlands). Why do Americans pay five times more for cell phone service than the Dutch?

2. You’re a global laggard in new technologies
Dropped calls, lack of service, nonexistent coverage in many rural areas — the inadequacies of U.S. wireless services are well known. But what really irks mobile enthusiasts is the slow rollouts of new technologies. The most bleeding-edge phones are rarely, if ever, sold in the U.S. In Japan, people are routinely using 4G services, watching TV and using cell phones as credit cards. If U.S. carriers are charging the most for service, why are we getting the least? Why are we always behind?

Sure, you’ve got a dozen excuses why the U.S. market can’t support new technologies the way European and Asian markets do. Making up excuses is something you’re really good at. Providing new technology, not so much.

3. Handset discounts are a shell game, not a ‘subsidy’
Like so many of your standard policies, the subsidizing of cell-phone handsets (and increasingly netbooks and other mobile broadband devices) is presented as a benefit, when it is, in fact, another way to get more money out of us.

If cell phones weren’t subsidized, then we’d know how much we’re paying for the phone and how much we’re paying for wireless services. With the subsidy, we have no idea.

You’d probably pay $599 for a new iPhone 3GS with 16GB of storage. But for eligible customers who sign a new, two-year contract, the subsidized price is $199. Do you think AT&T spreads the $400 difference over the life of your contract? Or is it $600? $800? How much are you paying for that discounted phone? You won’t and can’t ever know. Subsidies don’t save you money. They cost you money. The business model is to prevent you from knowing the price of your handset so you can’t make an informed decision.

The truth is that the word “subsidy” doesn’t describe the pricing. Nobody is subsidizing your phone. A subsidy is when one organization — say, the government — provides money to another organization or person to encourage some form of behavior. Some farmers, for example, get a subsidy from the government to grow certain types of crops. Food stamps for the poor are a subsidy.

When you get a “discount” on your cell phone, YOU pay the difference, not the carrier, not the handset maker. Sure, they’ll bury the costs in a muddled monthly bill. But believe me, you’re the one paying.

4. You seek new ways to get money for nothing
New York Times columnist David Pogue launched a high-visibility effort last month to address just one of the many ways carriers shamelessly take money away from customers for nothing. Pogue noticed that most of the carriers have mandatory, 15-second voicemail instructions that are played after your own voice-mail message is played. For example, Verizon plays: “At the tone, please record your message. When you have finished recording, you may hang up, or press 1 for more options. To leave a callback number, press 5.”

Everyone already knows how to leave a voicemail message. Apple required AT&T to drop the requirement, for example, and somehow iPhone users are still communicating with each other.

Pogue estimates that Verizon, for example, takes $620 million a year away from customers for all the collective “minutes” required to listen to these messages. That’s just one carrier, and just one example of how carriers make money by optimizing what they call Average Revenue Per User (ARPU).

Another example is SMS. On average, Verizon, AT&T, Sprint Nextel and T-Mobile rates for sending SMS messages have doubled over the past three years. It costs carriers about one penny to send each SMS message, but some now charge customers about 20 cents. During this three-year period, the cost to carriers to deliver SMS messages most likely stayed the same or declined, but all four carriers doubled their rates. I believe the most likely reason for the price increases was to persuade customers to choose all-you-can-eat bundled deals, which tend to cost about $20 extra per month.

And yet another example is the charging of minutes for both parties for each call. In Europe, the caller pays minutes for the call, and the receiver pays nothing. In the U.S., both caller and callee pay.

Carriers employ experts to examine all the angles to figure out which combination of bundles and packages and pricing will extract the most money from each customer. It’s not about charging more money for better service. It’s about charging more money for the same service.

5. You want to lock me in
Remember when we could sign up for a one-year contract? Why did carriers eliminate that option? The reason is that locking in customers for two years is twice as good for the carriers as one year. They make more on early-termination fees. They get to create the illusion of lower monthly prices by spreading the cost of a handset discount across 24, rather than 12, months.

Carriers collude with handset makers to artificially link handsets to specific carriers. The iPhone on AT&T is one such example of collusion, as is the Palm Pre on Sprint and the G1 on T-Mobile. Carriers and handset makers create these fake limitations for precisely the same reason movie theaters don’t let you bring in your own food — because it creates mini-monopolies that enable gouging on prices. Why do you think 10 cents worth of popcorn costs $4.50 at the megaplex?

In some European countries, this practice is considered anticompetitive and is against the law.

6. You aggressively oppose net neutrality
The degree to which carriers want to reject net neutrality, which is little more than fair and equal Internet access, was revealed this month when AT&T and Verizon (and Comcast) rejected $4.7 billions in grants — not loans, grants! — in government stimulus money because they stipulated fairness in the provision of services.

Why would corporations reject free money? Because they’ve reasoned that they’ll make more than $4.7 billion from you and me by rejecting the fair, equitable provision of mobile broadband services.

7. You want to lock out competition
I don’t know if it was AT&T, Apple or both that decided that the Google Voice app should be banned from the iTunes store, but locking out services that threaten total control is standard operating procedure in the U.S.. wireless carrier industry. Competition and innovation is the last thing carriers want. So they use their ownership of the wireless pipes to block the applications and services that would need to move through those pipes.

8. Your solution to public opposition is more lobbying
As the public becomes increasingly outraged at the carriers’ unethical, shameless and anticompetitive actions, their response is not to improve behavior, but to spend customers’ money on hiring lobbyists to influence Congress and the White House. In a recession, when companies are cutting back and laying off workers, both AT&T and Verizon are increasing the millions spent on hiring lobbyists to influence the government.

9. You’re growing too powerful
With nearly every netbook, smartbook, eBook reader, GPS device, digital camera and wristwatch poised to potentially support mobile broadband wireless connectivity, the carriers are positioning themselves to seize control of the consumer electronics industry. They want to become the electronics superstores, extending their abusive business model beyond cell phones to encompass every future device with a wireless connection.

10. You’ve forgotten that we own the airwaves
Cell phone carriers have rights, too. They own the towers and the servers that make wireless voice and data connectivity possible. They have the right to use their capital as they please, charge what they like and offer whatever combination of prices and services that the market will bear.

But all that equipment is useless without access to the airwaves, which are by law owned by the people. And that’s what makes the wireless carriers business different from other industries. Companies that are granted licenses to use the publicly owned airwaves should be required by our government to meet certain standards of fairness, equal access and competitiveness. That’s not happening right now. It’s time to let your state and national politicians know that you want this industry reined in.

Mike Elgan writes about technology and global tech culture. Contact Mike at mike.elgan@elgan.com, follow him on Twitter or his blog, The Raw Feed.