The American Cellular Telecommunications Industry Needs A Swift Kick In The Ass

When you go car shopping do you go to your local gas station? When you want to buy a television do you call DirecTV? Do you buy light bulbs from your local electric company?

Then why are you buying a cell phone from a carrier?

Swank new phones are something any individual can appreciate. Old or young, people welcome the attention they suddenly receive when that glorious piece of molded steel or hardened ABS plastic is removed from your pocket. One would believe that mobile phones are cheap as dirt if you landed in America. Signing two year contracts seem to be the norm. Yet consumers aren’t educated about choice, and that is hurting the industry in a world where mobile communications are experiencing what economists might call, a boom.

The 4 main providers in the US are Verizon (NYSE: VZ), Sprint (NYSE: S), Cingular and T-Mobile (NYSE: DT). The first two are CDMA carriers, the later use GSM technology. CDMA is by definition a monopoly and destructor of choice. GSM is a rebirth of packet technology, but knowledge of its capabilities isn’t known thru out the land.

American consumers aren’t educated because American carriers aren’t doing their job. As a carrier one should sell service, period. The phone on the other hand, that decision is left to the user, where he can explore the dizzying amounts of available headsets to his hearts content. Many discussions arise when it comes time to choose a carrier, and one more often then not is selected simply because of a phone that one may have due to an exclusivity deal; the other carrier who might be cheaper or more reliable is shafted since he doesn’t sell that omniscient RAZR. This is bullshit.

People need to come to the realization that a handset is carrier independent. That any GSM phone will work on any GSM network provided that person has a valid SIM card. The SIM card is your passport to the world via a cellular connection. Why would anyone choose a carrier simply based on the phones they subsidize hurts any sense of logic one might have.

The revolution that needs to happen isn’t going to happen via a technological battle, but by the uphill struggle to educate consumers. Someone needs to shine a light in their face and show them that there is a world of cell phones out there beyond the 15 that your carrier might sell at any given time. Someone needs to tell people that you can switch carriers at any time and keep your cell phone, you just need to swap your SIM. We live in a world where people actually need to get phones unlocked, why? Stop the madness and let users be free to choose. Carriers are competing not on network reliability or speed, but by who sells which phones. When will a carrier step up to the plate and sell only SIM cards and have the courage to tell the consumer than they can use any damn GSM phone they desire.

I use T-Mobile, why, because I get unlimited GPRS for $6 a month. Not because of the exclusive T-mobile Dash, or the exclusive T-Mobile Sidekick, but because my carrier provides a service that is priced competitively in comparison to the competition. This is the mentality that people need to have when shopping. Your phone has nothing to do with you carrier, but your carrier has a lot to do with what your phone is capable of. The mobile internet experience is ready to begin, the only thing holding it back is carriers charging $40 a month, for a certain amount of megabytes per month, on top of a voice plan. People don’t want to switch because they don’t want to loose their phone. People can’t switch because carriers lock the mobiles they “give away” after you sign away 2 years of your life. This does not fly in other countries where cell phones are sold in the same fashion as any other consumer electronic device.

Who will rise to the occasion and inform the public? Who will rid people of the shackles imposed by carriers?