In the wake of Verizon’s announcement that they are opening up their network, AT&T jumped into the media saying, whatever you can do, we can do, and we can also do it better.
Well, they didn’t actually say that… What AT&T CEO Ralph de la Vega did say, however, was:
You can use any handset on our network you want. We don’t prohibit it, or even police it. We are the most open wireless company in the industry.
Wow… AT&T claims that their network, which runs on a global open standard, is more open than everyone else. I bet you could even plop an AT&T SIM card in to an unlocked GSM phone and that puppy would fire right up on AT&T’s network.
Now that is a level of openness that you could only find on T-Mobile, pretty much every wireless carrier in Europe, Africa, Austrailia, Asia, Central and South America, and select luxury cruise lines.
[Source]
I’m waiting for “hellno” to chime in on this one 🙂
To echo “hellno” on this…the real advantage is indeed the more open GSM system. And indeed, every carrier will have to transition to a GSM based system at some point, as VZW is doing with their 4G LTE system.
What Ralph fails to mention though is that some of the plans available on AT&T are enforced…say for example I have a unlocked device which the IMEI is not registered as an AT&T IMEI, their are only certain plans that I may have on my account, some plans I may not qualify for due to the fact that they are considered “bonus” or “premium” plans only available to those that have bought a subsidized phones from AT&T.
All the US providers are being forced to change to a more open system, the writing is on the wall and it’s do or die. Bronze star for verizon’s words to the press, but there are some BIG questions that are still not answered by verizon, the more it’s read the less it sounds genuine. Also sadly we’ve seen many a grandstanding press release from verizon which is either something they are being forced to do (WNP) or something they are just saying to get some press, but in reality has little substance. The secret of wireless communications technology is over, more and more consumers understand and question why restrictions are in place which don’t need to be, and are anti-consumer. Imagine any other industry where the consumer is penalized for using more service, not just charged a fair amount for services used. At&t is correct in stating they are more open than verizon. At the end of the day wireless providers are all just service providers, (like any other servic providing business) and they are all slowly being forced drop the arrogance and greed and to act like service providers which are there to serve their customers, not restrict and work against the customers.
Open is Open, currently the US providers are at different levels of open. Whats interesting is verizon is grandstanding to the press it’s new open plan, yet the current RIM BB’s (and other devices) coming from verizon are still being crippled and functions are being removed.
All the wireless providers can do much better, fair pricing, open and freedom = pro consumer. The wireless providers can chose to either lead or be forced into being more open and more pro-consumer, either way the customer is winning.
This is just another shabby attempt by another horrible “service” provider to equal the awesomeness that is T-Mobile.