The New Wireless Playing Field - Olga Kharif, Business Week

Back in the 1980s, when Americans were buying the first brick-size cell phones, service providers quickly came to dominate the playing field with barely a struggle. .... But two decades later, a wide array of troops are massing against this system—from Apple and Nokia to industry newcomers like Google — all intent on wresting control from the carriers to deal directly with mobile users and grab a bigger share of the revenue. The dominant service providers like AT&T and Verizon Wireless remain in firm control for now, and offer no apologies for carefully protecting their profits as payback for the billions they've spent on building their networks. But an upcoming government auction to use new swaths of the airwaves could favor industry newcomers and require winners to open their networks to any device, service or technology from rival providers.

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