AT&T Embraces Open Networks, Uh, Sort Of

Not to be outdone by archrival Verizon Wireless, which gained a ton of free publicity when it said it would throw open its wireless network to any and all devices next year, AT&T today said it was embracing the "open devices" wave sweeping the wireless industry.

"You can use any handset on our network you want," the C.E.O. of AT&T's wireless business, Ralph de la Vega, was quoted as saying in USA Today. "We don't prohibit it, or even police it."

Big news? Er, not quite. De la Vega went on to note that AT&T wireless customers have had the option of using non-AT&T branded phones and applications for years.

They just didn't know it.

De la Vega didn't stop there. He continued: "We are the most open wireless company in the industry."

Try telling that to the owners of all those cool new Apple iPhones: Their handsets are handcuffed to AT&T's network and there is no sign that de la Vega or anyone else at corporate headquarters in San Antonio is thinking about changing that.

When you think of it, then, AT&T isn't thinking about changing anything. Despite the big headline in the nation's most widely circulated newspaper, AT&T has done nothing newsworthy. Strike that. It hasn't done anything. At all.

This "move" is an obvious defensive play against Verizon Wireless, which last week announced that it would open up its network by the end of next year. That action, in turn, was a defensive play against Google, which last month announced its Android open-source cell phone initiative.

On one level, open source advocates should be pleased that the big wireless companies are beginning to take this issue seriously.

But if AT&T wants credit for doing something, well, then it should actually do something.

by Sam Gustin