Wireless Oligopoly Smothers Invention

[Commentary] The wireless industry -- AT&T, Sprint, Verizon and T-Mobile -- needs some ground rules that make clear they are common carriers that get the right to rent the airwaves by abiding by fair rules. Right now, they play by their own rules.

You only get a single device, one that has to be pre-approved by the carrier. The device is almost always locked down. If you manage to pry its OS open enough to install software, you void your warranty. If you care to use your 3G connection occasionally as a modem for your laptop, be prepared to pay $30 extra a month — or hack the device and (see above) void your warranty. If you want to switch devices, you'll often be forced to 'upgrade' to a more expensive plan, even if your current plan offers unlimited data. For instance, Sprint has tens of thousands of users using its old friends-of-a-employee plan, known as SERO, which offered unlimited data on its best smartphones. Unhappy with the bargain it struck, the company refuses to let those customers upgrade to new devices -- even if they buy the devices for full price. Any device that runs on these carrier's networks must be approved by the carriers. The wireless industry defends itself, saying that it's changed its ways. Long notorious for crippling their phones and strangling app developers who wanted access to their devices, the carriers have loosened their policies, since AT&T made its fateful deal with Apple, which ripped control of the device out of AT&T's hands. The result showed to the world how the wireless industry had purposely crippled cell phones to boost their bottom lines, customers be damned. Now, the Federal Communications Commission, which is mulling more official net-neutrality rules, has the chance to finish the job Apple started, but couldn't bring itself to finish -- removing the carriers stranglehold over mobile devices.