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“Openness” as Defined by Verizon

Verizon plans on holding a developer’s conference in mid-March to show developers what can be expected of Verizon’s new “open” network rules. Those of you watching this story may know that, while the move to open the network was widely lauded, the details of that openness have been modified somewhat.  Existing customers (all 64 million of them) will not be able to unblock their phones for use win that brave new world, for example.

And of course, even the most optimistic of observers realize that the move to open the network came as a response to Congress’ new broadband rules requiring networks operating on the new 700mhz bandwidth to be unrestricted. These rules, by the way, are the same as those that are forcing television stations onto High Def signals.  In our increasingly wireless world, Congress and the FCC are trying to free up bandwidth, but in doing so, they are also imposing rules to increase competition and information freedom.

I know that a lot of my readers will find all this remarkably unimportant, with everything else that is going on right now.  But consider the fact that we all write and read the blogs of our choices on an inherently open system called “The Internet.”  That Internet’s content is increasingly being viewed and written on wireless systems such as Verizon, AT&T and Sprint control.  It is very much in the interest of the blogging community to keep information flow free.