 Wireless in the EnterpriseNetwork World's Wireless in the Enterprise Newsletter, 07/18/07Balancing cellular service management with user freedomsBy Joanie WexlerThe issue of open access to mobile networks is not simple. In theory, an all-open mobile network, like the Internet itself, should drive the emergence of ecosystem partners, innovation, and greater access for consumers. Who could argue with that? Well, getting an open mobile platform in place is not as easy as it is when dealing with infinite supplies of copper or fiber cabling as a network medium. Attributes particular to wireless technology make a mobile business model parallel to that of the Internet less desirable. First, there is finite capacity in mobile networks, whose performance is also sensitive to a variety of climatic conditions and interference factors that their cabled counterparts are not. So their usage has to be managed pretty tightly to ensure service levels. This is one reason the carriers reign supreme over their networks’ usage. Sure, they also want to avoid losing voice minutes to flat-rate data plans or to users roaming to other carriers’ networks. But the need to manage and control a network for service-level quality is a real one.
Second, what are we missing that we might get if the mobile network arena were to open up (provided we could figure out how to do it)? A mobile operator spokesman was quoted in one report last week as saying that his company’s help desk doesn’t receive complaints from consumers about not having device portability across networks and other services. Might that be because users calling the help desk are concerned with the crisis of the moment? And why should they even be aware of what they’re missing until it is offered? In 1985, I sure wasn’t complaining about not having broadband Internet access. But that’s because I’d never heard of the Internet. All this being said, though, both sides of the argument have merit and issues to work out. The primary challenge is how to appropriately balance the ability to reliably manage and secure mobile networks with the right amount of open development and user freedoms? I wonder if we could take some tips, on a national level, from some business models that have worked in the wired world at the municipal level? A few years ago, Provo, Utah, bought bonds to fund the buildout of a very high-speed fiber-optic network to every home, office, and business in town. The municipality financed and built the underlying “pipe,” then invited service providers to come deliver value-added services across the pipe. The city still controls the operation of the network and takes a small fee from each of the subscriberships to pay back the bonds. But anyone who wants to offer service can come to the network table and innovate. Now, what if some entity—say, the U.S. government—eventually built a nationwide wireless network infrastructure, paid for with taxes or some sort of financing that gets paid back through subscribership fees? Then, the Googles, Skypes, Verizon Wirelesses, AT&Ts, device-makers, software-makers and so on could innovate and sell the services over the publicly owned and run infrastructure. The carriers all say they don’t want to be “just pipe vendors,” that they want to add services. So if the pipe becomes a level playing field that offers nationwide interoperability, competition could come in, instead, at the device and service levels. Such a scenario may not be likely to happen in my lifetime, let alone in time for the January 2008 700MHz auctions. But perhaps it’s food for thought for the 22nd century.
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| Contact the author: Joanie Wexler is an independent networking technology writer/editor in California's Silicon Valley who has spent most of her career analyzing trends and news in the computer networking industry. She welcomes your comments on the articles published in this newsletter, as well as your ideas for future article topics. Reach her at joanie@jwexler.com. ARCHIVEArchive of the Wireless in the Enterprise Newsletter. BONUS FEATUREIT PRODUCT RESEARCH AT YOUR FINGERTIPS Get detailed information on thousands of products, conduct side-by-side comparisons and read product test and review results with Network World’s IT Buyer’s Guides. Find the best solution faster than ever with over 100 distinct categories across the security, storage, management, wireless, infrastructure and convergence markets. Click here for details. PRINT SUBSCRIPTIONS AVAILABLE International subscribers, click here. SUBSCRIPTION SERVICESTo subscribe or unsubscribe to any Network World newsletter, change your e-mail address or contact us, click here. This message was sent to: networking.world@gmail.com. Please use this address when modifying your subscription. Advertising information: Write to Associate Publisher Online Susan Cardoza Network World, Inc., 118 Turnpike Road, Southborough, MA 01772 Copyright Network World, Inc., 2007 |
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