CTIA: Verizon COO Says Walled Garden About The User Experience, Not The Money
from the pshaw-right dept
This morning's keynote at the CTIA wireless trade show featured a discussion moderated by The Wall Street Journal's Walt Mossberg, who's never minced words when it comes to expressing his displeasure with the way US mobile operators lock down handsets to outside content and services, referring to them as "Soviet ministries" for the way they stand as gatekeepers determining what services can reach their customers. He asked Verizon Wireless' COO, who was on the panel, why its ecosystem remained locked down, and why only those companies that set up some sort of commercial arrangement can reach the companies' users -- a contrast to the openness of the internet. The exec responded "it's called capitalism", inferring that the company was embracing the free market, whereas Mossberg is some sort of communist that wants everything to be free (that line of reasoning sounds sort of familiar). He then went on to explain that, despite the capitalism comment, Verizon keeps everything locked down because that if people downloaded a third-party application, or accessed an outside service, and it didn't work or they were unhappy, they'd call Verizon, not the third-party provider, and complain. So now they're concerned about the user experience? This doesn't make sense at all. Mobile operators are pretty notorious for failing to satisfy their customers, and furthermore, if Verizon was really interested in providing a better user experience, they'd tear down their walled garden and choose partners based on how well they serve users, rather than how much they can pay.Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
Re-inventing stupidity
Oh, wait... AOL used to be one of the
Three largest Internet providers and now
they're in a tail spin.
Maybe Verizon can profit from the lesson
AOL has learned but I doubt it.
This Verizon COO sounds like another
pompous jackass who proves the Peter
Principle.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
at least make up a lie that makes a LITTLE sense
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
No it would be more like Verizon knowing from their ISP experience, people calling Verizon DSL Support complaining that Gmail is not working.
Beleive me, I've worked in Technical Support for an ISP, I know the stupid calls!!! Especially back in the day of Windows95. For example, as you'd get this one at least once a day:
"You're internet is broken, I clicked connect, it made a bunch of squealing noises and now the only thing on my screen, is a timer that says connected!"
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
It's a network limitation so it doesn't matter what phone you use. With Sprint, Cingular and T-Mobile data services you can enter a URL or create a bookmark of your choice, not so with Verizon.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: PHoney
> It's a network limitation so it doesn't matter what phone you use.
And then you said:
> With Sprint, Cingular and T-Mobile data services you can enter a URL or create a bookmark of your choice, not so with Verizon.
So it does matter what phone you use. So there.
Open the net, providers.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: PHoney
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
Chris.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Verizon is dead set on controlling as much as they can about how their service can be used.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: something rotten in the firmware.
i uploaded a few mp3's to both. the k800i works, well like a flash drive really. the samsung however.. the mp3 file appears in the file transfer window until that window is refreshed, at which point its gone.
strangly anything uploaded to it appears to be 'locked' to that phone as well.
I'd say this could be something in the phones firmware to prevent stuff being sent out.
naturally i can send a picture from the phone via the network, just not over bluetooth, which is annoying.
i think i can get at stuff via the wires that came with it and plugging directly, just not via bluetooth, (or I.R.)
given two phones on the same network and tarrif act differently... well my finger points to the phones maker.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
wrong...
treo700w
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: wrong...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: wrong...
Solutions are out there for most problems with Verizon phones. www.bitpim.org and www.howardforums.com are two of my favories for finding answers.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Then Buy an Unlocked Phone and Stop Bitching
In my previous life at http://ww.tigerdirect.com, I started obtaining and selling both CDMA and GSM devices. Verizon and Sprint would get mad all the time, but turn them on none the less. All with a single phone call and a 16 digit number. Not so shabby when we were offering consumers $39.99 and $49.99 refurb PDAs - this isn't something that applies only to new phones.
They work. The cellphone companies get more in funding for the promotion of any phone from the manufacturers. Why would they stop since they are already hooked on the money drug?
Lonny Paul
http://www.lonnypaul.com
CDMA: VERIZON / SPRINT
IDEN: NEXTEL
GSM: T-MOBILE / CINGULAR / AT&T / EDGE
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
T-Mobile
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
I bought a program for instant messaging, as I didn't want to pay Verizon a nickel for every message I sent, which uses my data plan.
There are a lot more things the phone will do, but I have to go in and change some of the Verizon settings. To get the data network to connect while on the phone, you have to make changes.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
This guy really takes the cake. Who is the guy trying to kid, it is about money. Innovation is being grind to a halt due to crap like this.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Honest Buisness
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
VZW arrogant as usual
Lonny: Sprint will not allow phones not sold for use on their network (and Sprint doesn't consider MVNOs that use their network, such as Virgin Mobile, to be their network!) on their network, and never has. Same goes for a few other carriers, namely US Cellular and some of the "unlimited" carriers (Cricket/Metro/etc.) VZW and Alltel technically don't anymore either because of E911 requirements, but they don't enforce the rule with an iron fist like Sprint does.
GSM carriers are not the angels some make them out to be; some T-Mobile phones have WAP settings locked down and won't run Java applets that didn't come from / aren't signed by T-Mobile.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
It is Capitalism
I don't find it surprising they are looking for ways to make up those profits by looking for a piece of the action for the services that run on their network. It is the most efficient path to innovation? No. Is it the best deal for the customer? No. But it does finance the continued build-out of converged networks for which there seems to be a lot of end user demand.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Sooo
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Verizon blocks specific content only
[ link to this | view in chronology ]