In response to supporting Slingbox, Verizon says “What runs on our network are our services.”

OK, fine then I’ll just stream my own media with Orb. Oh wait, I can’t do that either with Verizon. According to Verizon’s Acceptable Use Policy (scroll to bottom) their service “cannot be used (1) for uploading, downloading or streaming of movies, music or games, (2) with server devices or with host computer applications, including, but not limited to, Web camera posts or broadcasts, automatic data feeds, Voice over IP (VoIP), automated machine-to-machine connections, or peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing”

Uh, so what can I do? Oh, that’s right, what I can do is pay big bucks for Verizon’s mediocre, expensive vCAST premium services.

When will Verizon (and other carriers) realize that while they do own their respective networks, they cannot force their customers to use only their own content services. Sure they can try. Verizon has crippled it’s phone’s browsers by limiting 3GPP support, blocking ports, and even crippling the phones itself e.g. crippling Bluetooth so as to further limit customers to their own services.

Carriers spend gobs of money building and operating their cellular infrastructure and I have no problem paying them handsomely every month for the privilege of using it. However, force me to be limited to that carrier’s content and services? Hell no. Verizon, and other carriers with similar strategies, will realize the same fate as access-providers throughout history that had the same isolationist approach, e.g. Compuserve, Prodigy, AOL, etc.

Before the widespread availability of the Internet, you were stuck with whatever your access-provider offered. This is essentially the state that we’re in right now with mobile. We’re really just at that tipping point. As mobile phones are just now really becoming true multimedia devices and with the recent arrival of real cellular broadband in all the major metropolitan areas, the mobile web is ready to explode. And you can bet that the breadth and depth of both free and paid services from third-party providers will blow away anything that any carrier will be able to offer.

Note: I would like to say that from the research that I’ve done on this subject over the past several weeks, Sprint is MUCH more liberal than Verizon. They only officially disallow illegal uses of their network (basically like all ISP’s do) and they don’t block ports or cripple devices in any significant way. They still do not allow (unlimited) laptop tethering however. Needless to say, I can’t wait to switch from Verizon to Sprint.