The Wireless Story of 2007: Open Handset Alliance / Android
Posted by Rob at 6 December 2007, 11:44 AM and is filed under Open Handset Alliance and Android,Mobile Marketplace,Mobile Media and Applications 
When I
first read some snippets about Google’s Android project and Open Handset
Alliance (OHA) initiative, I thought, “People are going to have phones that are accessible to all developers,
allowing them phones which are incredibly flexible and original. And,
users will be able to customize their phone right down to the main screen
layout!” I dreamt of a day where Skype could run unfettered on a phone, making international conversation air-time free, and mobile surfing became practical and speedy. And that swift connection (with low latency) truly opened a world of information and web-based applications to all mobile humanity, myself included. And to pay for it all, I would see (and ignore) ads along the way.
But while most operators have joined OHA, they are the gatekeepers regarding whether and how applications can use their networks and it remains to be seen just how OHA fits into their revenue models.
Irregardless, there is a related initiative which makes things even more interesting:
Google (the leader of this new paradigm) says it will bid for 700 Mhz spectrum in the upcoming FCC auction. Speculation for months has been that they are hot to build their own wireless network; I suppose to guarantee an open channel to ad revenue growth.
They would indeed need to have the desire (and partnerships) to accomplish this, and to guarantee the level of network access needed to make the dream a reality.
But just as the i-phone raised the bar for handset quality and usability, just the prospect of Google building an alternative wireless network could encourage operators to provide the access and low latency which is needed. If they do, there may never be a need for Google to build any network.
As long as operators are protecting their revenues, there will not be real open access, no matter what they say.
They will just add latency so that Skype won't work, etc.
GoogleNet is the only way!
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