Great panelists by the way! I would ask the following:

Mr. Shiram (Google): if you were Mr. Thauke, what potential synergies do you see between Verizon and Fon.com

Mr. Thauke (Verizon): if you were Mr. Varsavsky, would you rather like Google and Verizon compete or cooperate with each other?

Mr. Varsavsky (Fon.com): if you were Mr. Shiram, which legislature would you like to see to better work together going forward?

Best of luck,
Juergen Fesslmeier

I have a few questions for you to ask the panel at the end of this post. First, some background…

Point#1 (unleash the right skills…get results)
I have been involved in wireless “data” services from the very beginning. In every case where there was some form of “openness” involved in the business model the market responded with exponential expansion. (Scandinavia pioneering the premium ring-tone market, Japan’s iMode network..etc) People WANT to use great mobile services if they are discoverable and relevant. But running a network and getting good at minimizing dropped calls is not the required skill set for creating brilliant mobile services…which is why you see fantastic growth when the model allows for those who ARE good at this a way to make money. Enter the open-ness debate.

Point #2 (innovate fast and let the market decide)
No one knows what services will win in mobile prior to trying them in the market. Case in point: iMode in Japan. DoCoMo spent huge dollars researching the what the killer app should be for the iMode launch. Winner? Mobile Banking. Never cracked their top 10. The ONLY way to win in this game is let lots of innovators in, give them a winning business opportunity and watch the games unfold. The internet model has shown us this. The aforementioned “closed” Verizon walled garden model does the opposite.

So here are your questions:
1. “Mr. Verizon, when nearly every historic example of widespread market adoption of new mobile services is based on open innovation, interoperability and incentives for third-party development….why are you still fighting to maintain the opposite?” Don’t let them claim that Verizon is a success case either. US data services are used by only 15-20% of the market. Europe, Japan, Korea are far higher when all “data” services are considered.
2.”Mr. Google (aasuming Ram were representing them for a moment), given that you want mobile operators to share their network with you, are you also willing to share your search data with them so they can offer competing marketing services?”

Good luck!
Dag Kittlaus

I’ve written a lot about the issue from the perspective of developers and testified to Congress about it too. See here and here.

Some questions for Verizon: how come I can connect any virus-ridden laptop in the world to your network (with a data card) but I can’t bring my own phone? Why should we trust you to manage your landline network neutrally without any new regulations when you have no intention of running your wireless network that way? Why should developers and VCs invest in wireless applications when carriers want to own every category that appears promising?

Happy to talk more
Jason