I know when to admit there are men far greater than I. That when, is right now.

Walt Mossberg, you sexy beast, you are my new hero (say goodbye Tony the Tiger, say hello WSJ’s tech reporter). Walt has gone and said what I done been thinking for a while now, and he has said it on the eve of CTIA, the mobile technology show in San Fran.

In Walt’s recent post Free My Phone he explains that the choke hold the major cellphone carriers in the United Sates have on the industry, is not only counter productive, but making us “The Laughing Stock” of the mobile world. I don’t like being the laughing stock of anything (the fourth through seventh grades were hard enough), more over the mobile tech world. You’d think with the barrage of nightly cellphone ads we see, that America, the free market capital of the world, would be on the cutting edge of mobile tech development, but that is far from the truth. Due to bullying lobbyists, government restrictions, and lingering ma bell mentalities, outside developers and start ups are not allowed any elbow room into the mobile marketplace. You should see where we work here at Cellfish. To call it a hovel would be downright flattery. (You ever seen reenactments of Viking slave ships, where the black masked, overlord whips the rowers simply because sails hadn’t been invented yet? Let me just say, that’s Monday through Friday here.) And I blame the carriers for my treatment. If they would free the cellways everyone would make more money (and the consumers would have better products!).

My main homie, Walt goers as far as to call the carriers “Soviet Ministries.” And that piqued my interest because in my last post, What Smells? It’s the the network I discovered that wild, out of control, capitalism and communism share a few things in common (other than their zodiac signs, their love of para-sailing and long walks on the beach of course). You see what happens is, (and this is gonna get slightly political, so you might want to put the kids to bed) when corporate greed is left unchecked, these companies tend to take on the attributes of insane dictators. Corporations have only one set of morals, and that is… The bottom line. Corporations hate the free market. Sure it’s what allowed them get started, but lemme tell you, Mao, Idi Amin, and the Ayatollah didn’t continue to embrace revolutions simply cause that’s where they got their first big break. No, it is just the opposite. Once you are allowed to get on top, staying there becomes your primary goal. And to stay there, you must CRUSH (slam fist on desk here!) the opposition.

And that is just what the major us carriers have done. They have made it almost impossible to create new products, new technology, or new software. They are stifling creativity, and making you bend to their wills if you want to do anything new or different. Sound familiar? “Paging Dr. Stalin, you’re needed in silicon valley, stat!”

So Walt, do not stop this battle cry, it is not only important to us here at Cellfish.com, but it is important to the American public. Because if our cellphones ain’t free, then we’ ain’t free. (Okay, that’s a stretch, but sometimes a little bumper sticker slogan is a good thing)

There’s been a lot of very interesting coverage on the this story in the recent days, here are a few articles I found on the subject.

Engadegt Mobile - Love the picture guys.

(BTW that’s me, the handsome lad with his hand on Mr. Mossberg’s tushy)

Piece of Mind - (A great post as well)
Atmaspheric Endeavors - (A very nicely written account as well)
CTIA - (The other side of the coin. A lot of valid points to be found here)
SolSie.com (I good break down of both sides)

- Captain Cellfish
Poster Boy for hire