From A Carrier

[Robert Michel]

Hello Ylanan!

Hey somebody from a mobil operator active on this list, this
is great! Welcome!

You must know that this is the community list and I'm like most of
the others not employed at FIC and I do not have internal informations,
I'm just a student at Aachen university (Germany) and very interested
in GNU/Linux (Debian) and mobile communications as well.

So I can't speak for the community - I will speak only for me.

The anouncement of FIC to bring a open, GNU/Linux powered smartphone
to the market was a great one - and I must say I have been positive
surprised. ;)


On Mon, 27 Nov 2006, Ylanan, Rene wrote:

> Hello.  We are a start-up mobile operator in the Philippines with a 
> CDMA2000-1x & EVDO network, 
The first OpenMoko device will be the GSM phone Neo1973 and when you
consider where GSM is available and where are open source developer
you will understand that FIC decision for GSM is based on this fact.
But when OpenMoko will running and a succsess I'm shure that FIC
would like to offer a version with  CDMA2000 and EVDO ;)

> and we are focusing on mobile data usage.
Than you will be right here to chare ideas with us.

> It is the practice here to subsidize the subscriber's purchase of mobile 
> phones in exchange for long-term service lock-in, so we are always on the 
> look-out for inexpensive but high-quality smart phones.  
This strategie makes sence when the number of clients is still growing,
but why every 1-2 years a new mobil? You as mobile operator are selling
and what is your profit with this - think about value added - even with
lower business volume you could have a higher profit.

There are provider dreaming from high profit by selling music via
GPRS/UMTS - the consumer will spent his cent only ones - he could give
it full for communication services, or have for it, have for the music
industrie.

What does "smart phone" for you mean?

I personal think that OpenMoko/Neo1973 will be a step like IBM did
it with introducing the first PC. Compare the screen resolution,
the CPU power, the memory and the network conectivity than will be the
Neo1973 much more than a PC in 1994. And when you consider that the
development of CPU and Memory goes even further than more and more
this means that:

smartphone = mobile PC + GSM/GPRS (or CDMA2000+EVDO) (+AGPS)

With the potential of a PC the software and the know how of the user
became more important. With GNU/Linux exist a high potential for
porting good software and encreasing the know how of the users.
Knoppix and Ubuntu are projects that makes GNU/Linux more easy to
use.

> Can you share what Openmoko hopes to achieve with carriers-as-partners?  

This is a very good question and I'm happy about your mail on this list.
I was surprised that an open phone will be anouced this year, but I'm
also surprised that a mobile carrier get actice on this list.
:)

> Maybe we can find a common ground to our mutual benefit.
That would be fine...

Rene, I like to write you some thoughts in the next days,
e.g. 
That network speed is not everything - I have used arround
1999 my mobile with a PalmPilot and the webbrowser ProxiWeb
(TopGunWingman) browsing with this proxy and 9600 Baud was much
faster than surfing with a moden and fixed line because this
program used a proxy that reduced the webpage size (and especialy
pictures).
or That wap isn't populare because 3-4 page visits were as expensive
as a coffee or a daily newspaper...

So promised, I will make some thoughts and write you next 2 days.

But I like to encourage everybody else to give some feedback - 
more than the short-term view that the Neo1973 isn't a CDMA2000
- hey guys - beside the Neo1973 it's a chance to write about
services, protocoll ideas and tariff models :))

Greetings,
rob