Rep. Ed Markey brandishes an
iPhone while discussing the device
at a Wednesday Capitol Hill event.
(Credit: U.S. House of Representatives)
Posted on 07/11/2007 8:31:58 PM PDT by Swordmaker
WASHINGTON--AT&T's exclusive right to sell the Apple iPhone drew complaints on Wednesday from Democratic politicians, though it was unclear whether they were planning to do anything about it.
"The problem with the iPhone is that the iPhone with AT&T is kind of like a 'Hotel California' service," Massachusetts Rep. Ed Markey said--in a nod to the Eagles hit, of course--during a hearing. "You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave."
Even though the hearing before the House of Representatives subcommittee on the Internet was supposed to be about "wireless innovation and consumer protection," the iPhone popped up among Democrats as a subject of criticism--and, among Republicans, as an example of the free market and consumer choice in action.
Neither Apple nor AT&T testified at the hearing.
To be clear, there are no proposed laws, or even talk of proposed laws, that would forcibly divorce Apple from AT&T. The wireless carrier reportedly has an exclusive deal to sell the iPhone in the United States for the next five years.
Rep. Ed Markey brandishes an
iPhone while discussing the device
at a Wednesday Capitol Hill event.
(Credit: U.S. House of Representatives)
Michigan Rep. Fred Upton, the top Republican on the subcommittee, said of the iPhone: "Its early success is an indication that the wireless market is in fact working. That iPhone is the newest mousetrap and now other carriers will be working to top it."
A more likely possibility is for federal regulators to require an open network standard (that would permit all sorts of mobile devices from all kinds of companies to operate) when some of the valuable slice of spectrum known as the 700 MHz band is auctioned off early next year.
"I think it's time that a consumer become the decider of what their phones do, not their cell provider," said Rep. Mike Doyle, a Pennsylvania Democrat.
Google has been lobbying the Federal Communications Commission to permit just that, and FCC Chairman Kevin Martin seemed to confirm the agency was headed in that direction in an interview published Monday in USA Today.
On Wednesday, Markey applauded that approach. The FCC "should seize this opportunity to create open access opportunity for wireless service," he said, and brought up the agency's 1968 Carterfone decision, which allowed non-AT&T devices to be connected to the telephone network.
Update: Just to be clear, despite their gripes about the AT&T exclusivity and the $175 fee that accompanies ending the mandatory two-year contract early, Markey and some of his Democratic colleagues appeared perfectly smitten with the iPhone itself.
Markey said it "demonstrates the sheer brilliance and wizardry of the new technologies which are available in wireless today" and commented that its Wi-Fi capabilities were a "welcome addition."
The Massachusetts Democrat even gripped the gadget in his right hand while he delivered the iPhone-related portion of his opening statement, although it became evident upon later questioning from his fellow politicos that it wasn't actually his property.
"It's just to hint to my wife as to what I do want for my birthday," quipped the congressman, who turned 61 Wednesday.
Perhaps it belonged to the chairman of the full House Energy and Commerce Committee, Rep. John Dingell (D-Mich.). (A Markey aide said she wasn't sure.) Dingell--who, at 81, also happens to be the House's most senior, albeit not quite its oldest, member--remarked that he was still BlackBerry-reliant but was also "enjoying my new iPhone."
"Is there any reason why, if technical questions can be addressed, that consumers ought not have the ability to determine the devices they're going to have on the network?" he asked.
Consumers vs. carriers
Most Republicans present said they believed the wireless market is a competition "success story" and thus warrants no additional rules. "When we micromanage, when we regulate, we discourage capital flow," said Rep. John Shimkus (D-Ill.)
By contrast, most Democrats and at least one Republican said the FCC may need to take steps during the upcoming 700 MHz auction that they feel would better promote consumer choice.
Rep. Chip Pickering (R-Miss.) and Jane Harman (D-Calif.) said they urged the FCC in a recent letter to force the operators of at least some of the soon-to-be-auctioned-off airwaves to allow customers to hook up whatever devices they please and to offer that band at wholesale prices to companies that want to get into the wireless broadband space.
Those ideas drew renewed resistance from the two wireless carrier representatives on the panel--Ed Evans, the head of a start-up called Stelera Wireless, and Verizon Wireless general counsel Steven Zipperstein.
Both executives said there's nothing wrong with allowing the auction winners to institute open access rules if they please, but they argued that forcing such a business model is inappropriate when there's no evidence of consumer discontent.
Of the thousands of phone calls and e-mails that Verizon Wireless's 60 million customers place to the company each day, "we have not heard from our customers very much about the desire to bring other devices onto our network or the desire to enable Wi-Fi," Zipperstein said.
Pressured later by Rep. Lois Capps (D-Calif.), Zipperstein denied that Verizon Wireless offers its U.S. customers "fewer" features on their phones than does the European carrier Vodafone, which owns almost half of his firm. "We offer different features," he said.
But Jason Devitt, a Silicon Valley entrepreneur who founded the wireless applications start-up Skydeck, argued there's a significant difference in the freedom granted to wireless product developers in the United States vis-a-vis in Europe. He belongs to a coalition that wants the FCC to set aside a chunk of spectrum as an open "sandbox" where innovators could experiment with new wireless technologies without having to secure permission first from carriers.
"If I want to produce a GSM device that will work on Vodafone's network, I don't have to ask Vodafone's permission," which he claimed has led to some 800 devices that could work on that network, he told the politicians. By contrast, "if I want to produce a CDMA device that works on Verizon's network, I have to ask Verizon's permission."
CNET News.com's Declan McCullagh contributed to this report.
And Apple cannot get in their door to sell the iPhones to other cell phone service providers for the next 5yrs, because ATT has prevented that from happening with their exclusive deal. And after 5yrs, the other cell phone manufacturers will have set up a business relationship with these cell phone service providers, Apple will have a hard time selling their products.
ATT will still have the right to use other cell phone manufacturers products during the next 5yrs, and market them with their service, so this deal should not hurt them too much.
They are almost in panic mode...since land lines are declining, so goes the pass-thru taxation.
I retired from AT&T after 31 years....and was always puzzled by the feds hatred of one of its most efficient tax collectors.
I’m not happy with any of the companies that dominate cyberspace, since they’re all left of center politically, but I thought Google was the least sinister among them. Google wants only your opinion, while Microsoft wants your money, and AOL wants both your money and your soul.
Socialism is nothing but criticism and second guessing of those who actually do things.Theodore RooseveltThere is no more unhealthy being, no man less worthy of respect, than he who either really holds, or feigns to hold, an attitude of sneering disbelief toward all that is great and lofty, whether in achievement or in that noble effort which, even if it fails, comes to second achievement. A cynical habit of thought and speech, a readiness to criticise work which the critic himself never tries to perform, an intellectual aloofness which will not accept contact with life's realities - all these are marks, not as the possessor would fain to think, of superiority but of weakness. They mark the men unfit to bear their part painfully in the stern strife of living, who seek, in the affection of contempt for the achievements of others, to hide from others and from themselves in their own weakness. The rôle is easy; there is none easier, save only the rôle of the man who sneers alike at both criticism and performance.
It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds . . .
“It’s the first time a carrier actually let a cell phone be developed completely with the consumer in mind. “
Sure -
- like no consumer would like VOIP in their phone so they can avoid using carrier minutes.
- Like no consumer would like IM so they can avoid using carrier text units.
- Like no consumer would like streaming audio for podcasts and internet radio that uses up the carrier bandwidth they they allready pay for.
If only Jobs would wake up to who his friends are.
“IM programs use up alloted text messages. They aren’t exempt.”
?? If you use an IM program, like AIM, your cellular provider is doing nothing they have not allready been paid for. It’s running completely through your unlimited data connection or completely separated by using your WiFi.
Until now the carriers have had a lot of control over cell phone features. This time they had no control, and a manufacturer got to decide everything that went into the cell phone. Hopefully this will balloon, and all manufacturers will start demanding power, and consumers will win.
Then please explain why, when I use AIM on my RAZR, T-Mobile counts each message toward my text message total for the month.
Perhaps Jobs does know who his friends are. His buddies could relieve him of the exclusive deal with AT&T, and he’ll be blameless.
Perhaps he’ll changes his name to cryptic symbol, and be referred to as “the innovator formerly known as Jobs”
We have let our elected officials overstep their constitutional limitations. They have abused the interstate commerce clause until it is black and blue.
Wan to take business out of politics and the massive money out of politics? Restore our constitution and bill of rights and take the power of life or death over businesses out of our government’s greedy hands.
“This time they had no control, and a manufacturer got to decide everything that went into the cell phone.”
Obviously not since Apple purposely left out features that consumers would want but would effect the profitability of the cellular provider.
“Then please explain why, when I use AIM on my RAZR, T-Mobile counts each message toward my text message total for the month.”
Simple, you are not using an application over an internet connection for your AIM - T-mobile is providing a gateway between AIM’s internet system and the SMS ( text ) system in your phone, and you are paying them for that.
Not with politicians around...
And you think that iChat on an iPhone would be any different?
Don’t know about iChat, but if the iphone had an AIM application on it that connected directly to the network, same as any laptop that connects wirelessly, AT&T should not be able to differentiate between those bits and the ones you send and receive from YouTube, so why should they have any right to charge you ?
Don't know how this would happen without government regulation.
iChat would be the iPhone’s AIM application.
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