Is there a future open wireless web?

Mike Liebhold of the Institute for the Future addressed the O’Reilly Emerging Telephony Conference a little over a year ago about the roadblocks to and promise of an open wireless web. In view of recent developments, this 17 minute presentation is right on topic. While progress has been made, the roadblocks he clearly identified remain in place.

Network operators have invested millions into reliable networks. In order to recover their costs, they have developed a strategy of offering enhanced services developed by and limited to their own in-house resources. But there is a fundamental flaw in this strategy. This “walled garden” approach to enhanced services ignores the many entrepreneurs and creative people who are eager to develop new services on wireless networks. The social trend of users at the edge of the network wanting to create their own experiences is ignored. The end result is that the growth of the mobile web is stifled. (IT Conversations)

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