Verizon Wireless has announced plans that have the potential to alter some of the wireless industry's worst anti-consumer practices.

On Tuesday Verizon said it will open its network to outside cell phones, wireless devices and applications by the end of 2008, as long as they cause no harm to the system. In addition, the company says it will release some detailed technical specifications early next that will allow hardware and software companies to more easily develop new devices and applications that will work on the Verizon Wireless network.

U.S. consumers could ultimately see some benefits from Verizon's new "bring-your-own-device-and-applications" plan, but it will all depend on the details -- nearly all of which have yet to be laid out by the company. Click here to view the company's press release on its plans.

On its surface, the plan appears to be a shift away from the traditional, "walled-garden" business model that rules today in the U.S. wireless industry, where carriers aggressively control the devices and applications allowed on their networks. The "walled garden" model is uniquely American: Nearly everywhere else in the world consumers have long been able to buy the phones and other devices they want and use them on on the network of their choice.

The Verizon plan could indeed be a big step in the right direction, but there were at least a couple of troubling caveats in the company's announcement -- and more are likely to surface as more details become available.

First, devices and applications will have to be tested and approved by a lab owned and operated by Verizon. Given the long record of anti-consumer and anti-competition behavior by American wireless carriers, this arrangement is very worrisome. If Verizon is sincere about opening up its network, it should be willing to have an independent lab or organization testing and certifying devices and applications.

Another major concern is whether Verizon will try to jack up network access prices for consumers who choose to bring their own devices and applications. This would not be out of character for Verizon, which only recently dropped a lawsuit against the Federal Communications Commission for imposing some loose open network requirements on a swath of prime broadcasting spectrum set to be auctioned off next year.

We are hopeful that Verizon's plan is more than hype followed by disappointment. It would be great if the country's other wireless carriers adopted similar plans. In an ideal world, all the wireless carriers will soon be trying to outdo each other by offering better, cheaper services and devices to consumers.

Here is what Verizon Wireless CEO Lowell McAdam said when announcing the company's new "Any Apps, Any Device" plans on Tuesday: "This is a transformation point in the 20-year history of mass market wireless devices – one which we believe will set the table for the next level of innovation and growth.”

Consumers should hold Verizon's feet to the fire to make sure that "Any Apps, Any Device" actually delivers on that lofty promise, and should pressure the rest of the country's wireless carriers to follow suit, or enact even better plans.

If they don't, lawmakers and regulators need to step in and make sure that American consumers -- at the minimum -- receive equal treatment from the wireless industry as consumers in most of the rest of the world.

________________________________________________________________________________
NEW ON www.hearusnow.org

Click on the links below to view these items recently posted on www.hearusnow.org