Russell has some very enlightening entries (as he usually has) about the role of mobile operators. His first one is about their ability to spur innovation.
He argues that operators have increasingly acted as gate keepers only in the last years and have substantially slowed down innovation and change in this segment.

"To my mind, there's a pretty simple. Innovation will come from the independent development community and entrepreneurs (often the same animal actually).

While most operators have developer programmes, most just pay lip service to the concept. "We're an operator, that means we need a developer programme. That's that box ticked. Now what's next? Oh yes, CRM". The good programmes give a lot of practical advice, run cool conferences and allow the developer community to network to solve their own technical problems. This is certainly better than nothing.

I fully agree - the absence of open standards and barrier free customer acquisition (in comparison what we the internet) has taken it's toll as 3G a technology that nearly everybody embraces had failed to provide valuable applications at low costs. Russell offers the following solution:

In another well-drafted article he is referring to this statetement of surprisingly "client hostile" pricing schemes fro mobile phones:

"...for one, their commoditized product offerings seem to be dreamt up with two eyes on the competition and none on the customer. Also, like airlines, rates are seemingly set by some big dispassionate computer (the same one looking at the competition � let's call it "Oz."). Then, try to call your cellular provider about a billing dispute! You'll wait on hold forever, and � guess who wins those disputes everytime!

But you know what is likely? Management will dismiss her ideas. She'll leave the meeting, and when she'll return to her desk she'll find the latest Excel spreadsheet outlining the competitions' pricing plans. She'll file her PowerPoint presentation from the meeting in the drawer by her desk, and then she'll pick up the spreadsheet, and, reluctantly, fire off a Microsoft Word memo recommending that her company match the latest price increase from Sprint."