The first shots in the mobile phone war between consumers and carriers

I've written before that Apple's iPhone and the threat of Google's Android (or gPhone) are rewriting the rules for the mobile carrier market. Well, the New York Times now thinks so too. And perhaps the most insightful point the article makes is that this is not a technology issue, but a marketing one:

At the heart of the tension between the different camps is whether the wireless network should be open, much like the Internet is today, or remain under the watchful control of companies like AT&T and Verizon Wireless, a joint venture of Verizon Communications and Vodafone. Carriers, who paid billions of dollars to build their networks, are unwilling to open them.

For others, change can’t happen soon enough. As such the alliances and partnerships struck now are likely to shape the industry over the next five years.

“It is the battle of the overdogs,” said Tom Wheeler, a venture capitalist and former chief of the CTIA, a trade group for the wireless industry. “They are all jostling back and forth to be leaders of the next generation. The question is, how do I position myself? It is a territorial battle.”

Asking this question of carriers today is a bit like asking AOL about the Internet in 1994. Because of their multi-million subscriber lists, the carriers think they are winning the battle for their hearts and minds. But if that's the case, why do so many mobile phone customers hate their carriers?

Bottom line: the carriers have made their livings to date from owning the customer (through contracts), the handset (through vendor subsidies), the network (through licenses), and the content (through content restrictions). What customers are saying is that they own the network -- period. And that's what the wireless war will be about for the next decade.

Full disclosure: the author owns Google and Apple stock, but has no positions in mobile carriers.

Technorati Tags: Apple, Google, iPhone, Mobile phone, New York Times, Android, Telcos, Telecom