Leslie Cauley from USAToday wrote an interesting piece that ran in today’s paper titled “Skype: Locked Phones Unfair“.

Skype is making an argument to the FCC that large telecoms like Verizon are blocking out competition by not allowing consumers to use applications not sold by the carrier, thus breaking what Skype claims to be a longstanding FCC rule.

They’re claiming that the FCC rule states.

Skype says these practices violate longstanding FCC rules that allow consumers to use any device to connect to the U.S. phone network. The only caveat: The device can’t cause damage to the phone system.

My thoughts when I read that quote was that, ok perhaps there is something to this after all. This next quote though sets the above quote in the proper setting… 1968.

These rules, adopted in 1968 before the advent of cellphones, paved the way for a crush of telecommunications products, including answering and fax machines, cordless phones and computer modems.

This second quote in my opinion is just that; opinion and that the real meat of the issue is 1968. There is no way the mobile devices we have today could have been envisioned in 1968 which was about the time when consumers started purchasing their own rotary phones vs. the monthly lease that the telephone companies previously had in place (for years). Isn’t this the real reason behind the original rule? Telephone companies wanted insurances that purchased phones wouldn’t break the system?

Here’s the game changer if Skype gets the FCC to agree with thier position.

Skype has asked the FCC to order cellphone carriers to stop blocking software applications offered by other companies. Gene Kimmelman, director of Consumers Union, which supports Skype’s petition, agrees. “You’re never going to get a competitive market if the device you use is controlled by one company and you have to spend an arm and a leg to shift to alternatives.”

So, where do you stand on this? Are the phone companies hiding behind sorely outdated FCC rules that perhaps need to be updated? Did the phone companies envision this mess and therefore institute layers of standards that now make this sort of interoperability next to impossible in the U.S. or is Skype just trying to get a bigger market share and turning the tables by using the same tools (FCC Rules and Legislation) that the telecoms use?

All quotes are from the USAToday article.