Phil has generated some more discussion on this new development to old bad telco habits, here in Finland (link below).
Sigh. We always think unbundling service from transport is best for
the industry. They tried it in the US with fixed line phones and DSL.
They tried it in the US with long distance. They tried it in the US
with cable.* Yeah, there was a temporary burst of innovation and
value creation. But, look at those industries now. Same old monopolies
have returned or reformed. Same old lock-ins and anti-competitive behaviour.
Then, what is the solution? Are we the ones with the blind-spot here, not the service providers?
Regarding the spirited Finnish mobile industry debate below – Jouni AKA MRKTNGman from Nokia’s S60 blogs did a little number crunching. He compared the prices of a bundled package vs. non-bundled package – The consumer will pay an extra 3,58€/month (for two years) to get an awesome Nokia 6630 for “free”. Not a bad deal for poorer people (students especially) who wants a fancy smartphone but can’t afford the 299€ to buy the device at the shops…
*And France is trying to do it to iTunes and Apple.
