The FCC steps it up!

First an awesome BusinesWeek article (yes Tim, your favorite website).  Then an update since the article.

(But even before that I want a firefox extension to allow me to highlight parts of a webpage...)

In this short article, Dr. Amol Sarva (CEO of Txtbl, a mobile e-mail start-up) reminds us that Google's vision for the wireless industry has the opportunity to open it to a flood of innovation enabling entrepreneurs to finally make a big impact in the mobile industry.  This is contrary to the current market for entrepreneurs, er..rather the lack thereof because carriers maintain an iron grip on what applications can be downloaded onto their phones.  And what IF you sign on a carrier?  Don't bother to party like a rock star because you've now only got exposure to 1/5 of the market.  Unless your name is Steve Jobs and your product makes its own market.

Dr. Sarva reminds us of the four principles: open devices, open services, open applications and open networks.

Update Article: Interesting that the FCC's rules dictate that the winner of the bids should operate wireless networks that could be used by any mobile device, service or application.  Google has always said that it won't operate it's own wireless network.  Do they have something up their sleeve?  Or will they partner with an established player and attempt to change the mentality to open networks.

If Google operates its own network, there will be a fundamental shift the way we view wireless communication.  It will be the full convergence of the laptop and the original cell phone, and of WiFi and smart phones.  Which would be fantastic because then there's no difference to when I open my laptop and surf the internet and when I make a telephone call (although I could see myself paying two separate rates for those two services, but hey, maybe with clever advertising, I can get it for "free").

I'd like to see Google operate its own network because then they will have more flexibility to define it however they want. Although in a partnership, hopefully Google has enough clout like Apple does to force a carrier to make changes to its rate plans.