How 'open' are the bit-pipes?

Carlo’s posted a rather wicked overview illustrating just how open some of the US mobile operators are.

i.e. they’re not. Not at all. Despite issuing the press releases and presenting reasonably inspiring keynote presentations…

Link: MobHappy » Blog Archive » Is All This Talk Of ‘Open’ Just Lip Service?

So apparently, the message is ‘We’re open… unless you compete with us.” This reeks of old-school telco thinking: ‘People won’t use our services because they’re the best, they’ll use them because they’ll have no choice!” The choice is the operators’: they can continue down this ‘open*” path, and set themselves up to get cut out of the picture completely; or they can actually embrace openness, and develop their services to thrive in a competitive environment, and benefit from the influx of innovation such a stance would bring.