February 10, 2007
A Call To Let Your Phone Loose
An interesting article from The Washington Post on a debate raging between academics and consumer activists vs wireless carriers, asking asking "why the companies are allowed to force consumers to buy new handsets when they change carriers, pay a specified carrier to transfer photos from a camera phone, or download ring tones or music from one provider only."
"Until federal regulators issued a landmark ruling in 1968, Americans could not own the telephones in their homes, nor attach answering machines or other devices to them.
Now, a growing number of academics and consumer activists say it's time to deliver a similar groundbreaking jolt to the cellphone industry, possibly triggering a new round of customer options and technical innovations to rival the one that produced faxes, modems and the Internet."
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