Bill Erickson
New Media Entrepreneur

(photo by lazybone cafe)

[Update:] In the comments, Chris pointed out that T-Mobile just announced something similar, a phone that switches over to wi-fi when it has a better connection (ny times article). I love it. But, right now they are only offering it with a basic flip phone. Once they get a Blackberry or iPhone that I can use with this, I’m switching. Does anyone know if I can have my Blackberry Pearl unlocked, buy one of these flip phones, and take the SIM card out of it and put it in my blackberry?

Now, there’s no arguing that the iPhone is a great new phone. It will cause major - and much needed - changes in phone design. But for it to truly be revolutionary, El Jobso will need to redefine the phone network.

Most of the major faults with the iPhone can be attributed to its partnership with AT&T.

• You can’t use one of your songs as a ringtone - AT&T is making too much money selling ringtones
• There’s no chat application, and the text message interface was designed to look just like iChat - AT&T is making too much money on SMS’s
• No one is having aproblem buying an iPhone, but a bunch of people can’t activate it because of AT&T

The phone has now become a mobile computer; voice is simply one application on this device. It’s time for AT&T and the like to provide JUST the network, not control everything else.

What would the true Jesus Phone be like? I would go to the apple store and buy an iPhone. Somewhere in it there would be a “Networks” option, which listed AT&T, Verizon…. I’d pick my home wifi and AT&T, and link it with my AT&T network subscription. I’d use this same subscription with my phone, laptop, and anything else that requires a network connection. You could select multiple networks and the phone would automatically use whichever had the better service (Verizon might work better in Austin, AT&T in Houston, and my home wifi at my house).

For the $X/month I’d pay AT&T, I’d get unlimited access to their network. Everything they charge extra for right now (voice, SMS, data), these are all just data moving on their network. Time Warner doesn’t charge me based on the number of emails I send/receive, videos I watch, chats I do, or any other way I use their network - they just charge me monthly for access to that network.

And with this loss of control by the phone network, Steve Jobs would fully be able to deliver “The most revolutionary mobile device in history … will completely change the way users think about mobile computing.”