Valley Chai

the #2 mobile carrier verizon is going to open up it’s network for any device and any application – check out this Yahoo! News Strory. on what it means to the business of carriers, gigaom has an article. he argues that this is an opportunistic move in relation to 700MHz auction, and might have serious limitations on it’s open-ness. gizmodo has some quotes from verizon execs explaining the scenarios they aim to enable. however this breakthrough announcement came to be, it is a good step in the right direction for web 2.0 as it provides a key enabling technology.

• the best social network of a person is the list of numbers most frequently dialed on your cell phone. i for one, will be eagerly waiting for my IM contact list sync’ing with verizon contact list, and carry an IM conversation into a mobile-SMS conversation.
• theoratically, one could develop apps that span computer-based social networks (facebook, et al) and mobile-based social networks (verizon, possibly att, et al).
• platforms that overlay cell phones (e.g. Yahoo! Go, Plusmo) might become less relevant. they may also have to open up
• this might make verizon get some geek-cred (despite it’s atrocious logo)

google may have forced verizon’s hand on this with their android and posturing around 700MHz auction, and they might have already won (eric schmidt is already gloating). guess who would be ready with an app as soon as the platform launches!