WiMAX Articles
What is the Carrier Roadmap for Offering True Device Openness?
June 21, 2008 8:32 PM
Verizon has told the FCC that it would prefer a nationwide early termination fee policy rather than the current arrangement that lets individual states set policy for fees. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Verizon suggested that the FCC use its own policy model for setting ETF pricing. Verizon thinks that trial periods for new customers, opt-out choices, pro-rated ETF fees and even no ETF options when devices aren't purchased at contract renewal is the way to go.
Why the comments? Well, ETF fees are a major source of consumer complaints about the industry. As usual the semantics are important as carriers want the FCC to also declare ETF fees as part of the regular subscription price to forestall suits in state courts.
But what does all of this mean for the longer term visions for device openness and the potential for customers to have casual network connectivity rather than for broadband wireless to be a subscription service primarily? Well, the US consumer is well-addicted to device subsidies.
To me that trend seems unlikely to go away soon and it also seems likely to me that carriers will garner some type of trade-off for that subsidy either contracts or ETF fees or both. But as the ecosystem for all broadband wireless devices matures, device prices should drop and there is real potential for people to buy a camera that could connect to multiple cell carrier networks directly in the reasonably near future.
Before it folded Xohm into Clearwire Sprint announced that it would accept any device onto its network so long as it was capable of meshing with that network. Other carriers quickly claimed they had always had that policy (yeah right) and the tipping point was reached. But I think this will be a shallow slope with open device connectivity taking a while to filter into the national consumer consciousness. People like lower phone prices. That won't change soon.
Tim Sanders