[bastion]

Scott76 said:

Don't these folks have anything better to do? What congress knows about technology would fill a thimble. They need to just stay away and let the market fend for itself.

What congress as a whole knows about any topic would fill a thimble. One hopes that they'll generally recognize that and actually seek the advice of knowledgeable but distinterested parties to help guide them. (Of course, that presupposes they have the knowledge themselves to reliably identify said parties.)

As for letting the market fend for itself... I think the free market is an excellent idea. If we ever have one, then government intervention can stop. Until that day, a legitimate role does regretably exist for them in shaping things.

(But not in this situation. This is a simple contractual quid pro quo. One carrier was willing to take on the risks of supporting the iPhone. I see no problem at all with that one carrier enjoying a period of exclusivity as compensation for that risk.)

[pekedey]

[quote name='bastion']
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Scott76 said:

> Don't these folks have anything better to do? What congress knows about technology would fill a thimble. They need to just stay away and let the market fend for itself.

What congress as a whole knows about any topic would fill a thimble. One hopes that they'll generally recognize that and actually seek the advice of knowledgeable but distinterested parties to help guide them. (Of course, that presupposes they have the knowledge themselves to reliably identify said parties.)

At today's hearing they are interviewing presidents and/or CEOs of AT&T, US Cellular, and Cellular South, a professor of Telecommunications and Law, and the director of the Progress and Freedom Foundation. This hearing is at 2:30 today and I expect they will be attempting to at least fill up a half-glass with knowledge. It looks like they have somewhat fair representation from both sides of the argument here, but we'll see what happens.

Press Release for the Hearing

[bastion]

JakeT said:

I don't really get why companies like Apple go with exclusive deals. I would think that they could sell more phones by working with multiple phone companies.

Companies make the deals they do, exclusive or otherwise, because they're perceived to offer benefit to the company's owners (and with any luck customers). Apple had two choices with the iPhone: work with AT&T or don't introduce it. Between those, do you think they made the wrong choice?

Any carrier would have had to make substantial up-front capital expenditures to support the iPhone (a new, expensive product from a boutique vendor with no experience or reputation in the market). A single carrier was willing to take that risk. Their price for that was exclusivity.

[rab777hp]

Wow, the government is preaching against wasteful spending, yet they want to take my tax dollars away from the healthcare system into getting all senators and staff iPhones with data bills of 80 bucks a month each. Not to mention the initial cost of the phone.
And this is all so that they can tweet that they're in a meeting that's gonna give us all some money while they're instead playing super monkey ball under the table.
i love our government
Looks like they'll all have to take a 24K night out then to test out their phones.