Matt Hamblen of Computer World wrote about Steve Jobs’ lofty goals for the iPhone 4′s video conferencing feature “FaceTime” to become an open standard.  Open standards are always welcome, but the industry generally looks at these invitations with suspicion and for good reason.  Just because a standard is “open” doesn’t mean it is royalty free. [...]

Steve Cheney of business insider has a very interesting article on how Apple’s hardware design choices for the Apple iPhone are also to blame for AT&T’s wireless congestion problems. More importantly, iPhone OS 4 will make this even worse with the addition of multitasking.

With the announcement of the iPhone 4 yesterday at WWDC, we finally got an inside look at the workings of the device and the upgrades to the OS.

Of the new features, two things were of particular interest to me:

1. Netflix; and,
2. FaceTime

Apple’s iPhone 4 has been officially unveiled and the technology leap is staggering. The good news for existing iPhone contract owners is that AT&T is letting them upgrade immediately.

In Bennett’s latest work he investigates the FCC’s Mobile Competition Report. Bennett believes that the U.S. cellular market appears healthy. He points out that Americans pay the lowest price for minutes in the world and have access to the latest and greatest phones that cost less than European alternatives that are not quite as stellar. But he points out that the FCC’s latest report paints a dire picture of the marketplace that is in need of regulation.

Generally speaking when I start reading something about metered billing my first instinct is always to think, “Whoa! Don’t touch my internetz!” But after the initial shock wears off it always seems reasonable to me.

Years ago, when I was a mid-level consumer protection official in the FTC, two different staff members approached me within an hour with two different theories about the refund practices of proprietary vocational schools. Staffer A said that a school’s practice of giving a full refund on demand for the unused portion of a course was an unfair practice because it was used by the salesmen to induce students to sign up (“you can always drop out and get a refund”) and then inertia kept them in. Staffer B said that another school’s practice of not giving such a refund was unfair because it meant a student could not get out of a wrongful choice.

The blogosphere seems upset about AT&T’s announcement to increase its Early Termination Fee (ETF) for smartphones from $175 to $325 while decreasing standard phones from $175 to $150.  Given the fact that smartphones are becoming more capable and more expensive, and given the fact that consumers don’t want to pay up front, it seems only [...]

Marguerite Reardon of CNET has this nice little interview with CTIA CEO Steve Largent and head of regulatory affairs Chris Guttman-McCabe. Reardon asked some important questions on wireless policies, Title II reclassification, and Net Neutrality.

ABI Research takes a look at worldwide wireless deployment and has projected that the next several years will be very big for the roll out of these technologies.