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Recent news shows Skype petitioning the US FCC to apply the ‘Carterfone’ ruling to mobile operators, as it it did in 1968 to the land-line telcos.

The article above describes what an uphill battle this will be, and rightly so in the US. But for the rest of the world (for the most part). The battle wont even begin, not because it is un-winnable, but because the mobile operators have never been as firmly entrenched in their position as they have in the states (backed up by the lobbying practices there).

Should we care that it will be an uphill battle in the US? I suppose so, but there is a whole rest of the planet out there, and I also I feel that these things will turn around a lot quicker than some industry experts expect.

For one, we are now just starting to see articles like the one I linked to. Granted VOIP news isn’t exactly unbiased, but it is spreading to a wider audience, especially now that Apple has stepped into the arena.

Secondly, for the most part, a large majority of the US consumer base is ignorant to the fact that they are being ripped off. Truthfully not many people know that their phones are being crippled (as the article above states). Imagine the groundswell reaction once they find out. Honestly, I don’t even really know what the legal basis is that allows mobile operators to cripple these handsets, especially since many consumers buy them based on ads by the manufacturer and not their service provider, which means they often end up with something that doesn’t do what it has advertised it can.

Thirdly, the tendrils are creeping. Every web based application that has made an impact in the last 3+ years (Google, Youtube, Flickr, etc) is looking at the mobile web space and stretching its tendrils. How can mobile operators continue to claim faster speeds but limit access? For a huge generation of people there is no difference between accessing the net on a personal computer and accessing it on your phone. As this generation continues to hit blocks that have no real basis other than monopolistic control, the pressure will mount and the dam will break. It is already happening, and it will only take one operator in the US to offer a mobile broadband service to crumble the the walls of others.

Lastly, lets not forget, technology often moves around roadblocks, VOIP for example. If operators continue to build walls, they will also be blocking themselves in. They will be left out if they don’t start making changes now.