John Biggs writes: "Carriers that once not only named the players but called the plays are now diminished in authority. Verizon is beholden to manufacturers to continue their Droid hegemony (and, most recently, their access to the iPhone) and T-Mobile is no more, swallowed up by the only GSM carrier in the US to sell the iPhone. Why? Because without a blockbuster phone, T-Mo was stuck and without bargaining power they’ll never get a blockbuster. The result, then, is a merging of the only two GSM carriers in the US, a major step for the technology and both companies.
Then Sprint and Google teamed up to supply Google Voice service to all Sprint customers. That’s right – instead of trying to jam home service down our throats, Sprint has given up. They’ve offloaded most of the calling features to Google and instead act as a carrier to Google’s traffic and assume that you’ll reorganize your life along Google’s terms rather than their own. How’s that for rolling up into a corner and whimpering for mercy?
The carriers are on the run."
