Tech Watch | InfoWorld Staff » AT&T's so-called open network principles

April 03, 2008 | Comments: (0)

AT&T's so-called open network principles

TAGS: Telecom

Most folks -- even tech CEOs -- don't carry around four handhelds, but Ralph de la Vega, the chief executive of AT&T Mobility does.

According to this Washington Post article, in fact, de la Vega cites those devices to make the case that "AT&T's wireless business is practicing open network principles."

Taking those so-called open principles another step, de la Vega, speaking during a press lunch at the CTIA wireless conference in Las Vegas, said that the Google’s Android platform is attractive to AT&T.

Explaining why AT&T was not on board from the beginning, he said, "We were concerned that maybe the focus was just on Google apps.

"If it's good for customers we'll offer it like any other OS," he said in AT&T jumps aboard Android. "It is something we'd want in our portfolio."

iPhone users that want the devices to work with carriers other than AT&T, on the other hand, might not agree that AT&T's practices are really open. Nor do they all find Apple's SDK for the device to be completely open.

"It's very unlikely that anyone from my company or me, in particular, will [participate in the] iPhone SDK business until they open it up some more," said Jeffrey McManus, CEO of consulting firm Platform Associates. Exec touts developing iPhone apps without the SDK. McManus recommends technologies including Microsoft's ASP.Net, C#, and ASP.Net AJAX as well as WebKit extensions to build applications.

Posted by Tom Sullivan on April 3, 2008 08:17 AM

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