To Regulate or Not to Regulate – That is the Question

The communications services, data and devices of the not-so-distantfuture are relying on us today to make wise choices that won’t have tobe undone and unlegislated just a few years down the road. 

We’re very literally at a crossroads in the communications andtechnology worlds today with the coming together of three major piecesof enabling technology: 4G broadband wireless networks; cloud-basedapplications, processing and storage; and ever smarter devices.

Whileit’s easy to view any of these pieces in a vacuum, they are allintertwined and dependent on one another, which naturally brings upinteresting topics for discussion and debate. For example, in JulyApple started pulling applications enabled by Google Voice from its AppStore saying that they duplicate features that come with the iPhone.Well, not long after that, Apple blocked Google Voice itself. GoogleVoice is an IP-based service that gives users (so far in the U.S. only)a single number for all of their phones, voice mail and SMS needs.

Wedon’t know who decided what, but the issue was hardly likely to havegone unnoticed, not the least by Google, whose CEO, Eric Schmidt, wasuntil a few weeks ago on the Apple Board of Directors. But the ripplescontinue to grow with Uncle Sam getting in on the act and writing toApple, Google and AT&T (Apple’s iPhone carrier and distributor inthe U.S.) asking them all for an explanation.

BecauseGoogle Voice would compete directly with the AT&T network,speculation is running high that self-preservation kicked in to blockit. But not only is Apple shooting itself in the foot with end users,but developers are also up in arms about this egregious violation.

Inanother incident that took place in July, interestingly also involvingApple, the company blocked Sprint’s iPhone competitor – the Palm Pre –from syncing with iTunes. The following week, Palm released a WebOSupdate that worked around this roadblock.

Applehas played the part of underdog to Microsoft for so long, and soperfected the art of garnering loyal, even fanatical supporters to itsside, seeing it act (allegedly) in a manner that seems to smack ofcorporate bully-boy seems odd.

Lookingat this from a slightly different angle, another example we’ve seenrecently of commercial interests and wrangling at the expense of usersis the possibility of Skype being shut down. eBay, which bought Skypefor a pretty penny just a few years ago, was trying to sell the companyback to its original founders, who didn’t want to pay what eBay wasasking. But their whip hand is that apparently the founders still ownthe intellectual property for the core technology for Skype - licensedto eBay but never sold – and now they claim eBay has infringed theirlicense.

In an interesting twist, just acouple weeks ago, eBay agreed to sell 65 percent of Skype to a group ofprivate investors that includes Marc Andreessen. Yes, the same MarcAndreessen who founded Netscape! How this changes things is yet to beseen, but it is certainly an interesting development.

Thebigger issue here in my view is that if we are going to have a debateabout an open mobile web, it’s not just the mobile service providerswho need to have a level playing field. All three of the key componentsI described above need to be open, with core standards and codes ofbehavior. But should these be enshrined in law beyond the anti-trustand competition laws we have today? Maybe, but as I’ve said before, themarket moves much more quickly than regulators who often regulate foryesterday’s problems at the expense of tomorrow’s opportunities.

Regulatory Disparity
If you look at all of these recent examples, you’ve got to say toyourself there is a huge double standard happening in the industry.You’ve got people who will yell at whoever will listen that the telecomindustry is distorting the market through discriminatory pricing.Meanwhile, you’ve got Apple and eBay – and doubtless many others – whocan just up and block services on a whim.

Skypehas some 400 million users worldwide and is now the largestinternational telephony provider. Yet it all hangs on a softwarelicense from two guys? This is an outrageous situation, and what’sequally outrageous is that Apple – traditionally a hardwaremanufacturer – is blocking what can and can’t be used on its hardwareto protect its iTunes software!

I’vealways said we need to just step back and let the market do what themarket’s going to do. Either we’re going to say it’s all fair in loveand war and anyone can do anything to anybody and may the best personwin, or we’re going to have some order, some structure and rules andregulations.

The catch here is theserules and regulations can’t just apply to the phone companies becausethey have historically been regulated while the hardware and softwarecompanies have not. It’s also not just a U.S. or a UK discussion;rather this needs a vehicle for discussion globally because iTunes andSkype are both used everywhere. It’s affecting everyone, and surelythese services must be subjected to some sort of scrutiny.

Weall know how heavily regulated communications companies are worldwide,and there are proponents of net neutrality who’d like to see the levelof regulation actually increase. Meanwhile, the other two legs of thestool – the devices and the cloud – have standards in place but noregulations.

It’s a complete Wild Westscenario that brings up some unpleasant questions that need to beaddressed. For instance, if I put my data into a cloud-based service,will I ever be able to get it back out again? Will I ever be able toswitch to another provider? And how can I compare cloud pricing ifthere’s no standard list of features that all cloud services shouldhave. If a particular cloud interface is proprietary, how can Ipossibly shift my data from one provider to the other, and is theconcept of data portability even possible?

Bringing Communications, Devices and Services Together
Trade associations like TM Forum have an important role to play inthese discussions, and we’ve taken the first steps toward addressingcritical issues regarding regulating and managing devices and servicesthat haven’t traditionally been under the long shadow of mandatedgovernment rules.

Ithink now is a great time to start the debate and talk about what todo. The communications services, data and devices of the not-so-distantfuture are relying on us today to make wise choices that won’t have tobe undone and unlegislated just a few years down the road.