We thought that the whole idea of companies like Google calling for open access networks was so that it would protect their customers from the likes of the major RBOCs in the US, and stop them controlling access and limiting it to Walled Garden cellular architectures.
Now with the Verizon announcement this week that it will open up its own wireless network for use with devices and applications that are not from Verizon, we are left wondering not only if the offer is genuine, but also if the move is permanent, taking away the urgency of Google’s calls for openness.
Some are seeing it merely as a PR job, aimed in the main at arch rival AT&T which has drawn fire over its exclusivity approach over the iPhone, but Verizon said it will have this new option available US wide by the end of 2008.
The aim is to publish the technical standards for interfaces and any devices that meet minimum technical standards will be activated on the network, with a $20 million state-of-the-art testing lab being set up for fast lane approvals.
This reads much like the early Sprint descriptions of what its WiMAX network would be like, but of course any device that wishes to work at the air interface level will be caught up in Qualcomm CDMA intellectual property, and this move should put even more rocket fuel into the Qualcomm stock price. But many services could ignore the introduction of new devices and sit at the software level on the device, linked to servers across the network, working with existing devices supplied by Verizon. As in all things, the devil is in the detail, and it might be that while Verizon opens up its network, it doesn’t open up its own subsidized devices ‘ keeping them back for its existing services.
Underlying any move to openness in cellular, is the aim that device subsidies might go away or reduce somewhat, after all if Verizon doesn’t nominate the devices, then why should it pay for them, but we can’t move away from the idea that the pricing on this service will be all important, and that it could potentially invalidate most of its own moves made in recent years to differentiate itself from rivals ‘ for instance its VCast services. There would immediately be hundreds of streaming video and music services piled on top of the Verizon network, from cheap cellular streaming servers, and the Verizon brand would likely to be submerged.
In a market full of operators that go down this route, there would only be differentiation by making content services better integrated on Verizon’s own offerings, and therefore work more smoothly. But by being first to market with openness, Verizon is trying to steal a march on its rivals. AT&T is unlikely to go down this route, and Sprint will find partners harder and harder to find for its Xohm network if there is already a network out there that is ready made and open. At the very least it will drop the market value of a future Sprint network which will take years to build and in the end, although it may outperform the Verizon network, it will not bring quite so much that is new to the wireless party.
And even in the provision of its own controlled testing lab, Verizon might be ensuring that only ‘friendly’ devices make it only its network, and the transparency of that process will need to be examined in detail.
Following publication of technical standards, Verizon Wireless will host a conference to explain the standards and get input from the development community on how to achieve the company’s goals for network performance while making it easy for them to deliver devices.