Released: August 23, 2007

‘Handcuffs’ chafe wireless phone users

Source: Leslie Cauley, USA Today

To many, the Apple iPhone is the ultimate wireless device — a seductive blend of technology, function and dead-on cool, all wrapped into a sleek package. To others, it’s a glaring example of what’s wrong with the U.S. wireless industry in general.

“The iPhone offers superior technology, but public policies in this country allow [Apple] to chain that technology to one massive company, AT&T, rather than allow consumers to make the choices they want,” charges Josh Silver, co-founder of Free Press, a consumer advocacy group. His latest campaign — “Free the iPhone” — promotes an open Internet and consumer-friendly public policies for mobile devices. The website (www.freetheiphone.org) has resulted in “tens of thousands of supporting petitions,” he says.

Silver says his beef isn’t with the iPhone per se. Other U.S. carriers do the same thing with the devices they sell. But the iPhone, he says, “is a great example of how badly broken our media system is in this country.”

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