In today's issue of UK publication WAP Insight,
Details seem to have leaked out concerning breaches in 3 UK's 'walled garden' approach to mobile Internet access. The UK operator looks set to offer two new services – Mobile Web and Wireless Web. .... At present 3 UK users can't break out of the operator's portal. According to a report in Mobile magazine, initially Mobile Web will only be made available to contract customers and will cost an additional £2.50 per month for up to 5MB of data downloads. It says the Wireless Web service will cost customers £45 a month and provide for up to 512MB of data downloads. .... It looks suspiciously like 3 UK's response to Vodafone's Mobile Connect offering...
This is an area where the US mobile market is ahead of the EU. Verizon, Sprint and Cingular already offer Internet access, at flat rates, with no explicit data limit. For example, Verizon Wireless' BroadbandAccess package promises "unlimited" data for $59.99 per month (assuming you also have a voice plan...). Of course there are many strings attached, e.g. Verizon's language:
BroadbandAccess services cannot be used (1) for uploading, downloading or streaming of movies, music or games, (2) with server devices or with host computer applications, including, but not limited to, Web camera posts or broadcasts, automatic data feeds, Voice over IP (VoIP), automated machine-to-machine connections, or peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing, or (3) as a substitute or backup for private lines or dedicated data connections.
But still, the walls are down in a practical sense and flat rate pricing has arrived. Yes, there will be instances of VoIP blocking and selective enforcement against high bandwidth users, but the Internet is no longer walled off and the P2P community has proved that any opening is enough to support a rich set of applications.
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