When FCC Chairman Kevin Martin’s predecessor Michael Powell used Skype for the first time and said “I knew it was over when I downloaded Skype; this will change everything”, he had no way of knowing three years later larger Web forces would take the Skype open-internet mantra to the next level and challenge an over-the-hill old-guard group of Ma Bell incumbents on the airwaves themselves. Today, implementation rules for the January 2008 700MHz spectrum auction were voted on in DC, with five FCC commissioners weighing in on what has become a battle of the ages between the Bells and Google—for what each party considers their versions of Open Mobile Networks.  Deep breath...  OK.  Ready?  The vote outcome is in favor of the following conditions:

• Open applications: any software application, content, or service on any device
• Open devices: any device can run on the network
• Open networks: total open network access

So despite Google loosing approval for the forth Open Services wholesale access condition request, today is nonetheless the day that will go down in history as the beginning of liberated mobility— a day when oppressive hierarchies were flattened—the day that the Berlin wall of wireless carrier protected gardens collapsed—a day were old ways of doing business began to die—the day when the U.S. Federal Govt. and the office of the FCC accepted and agreed that the next mobile broadband network should be completely Open and Programmable.