• Zero

    It won’t work for the simple fact that the ability to simply make a phone call goes out the window and gets several steps added to it.  Will some companies charge per minute while others charge per call?  Who will handle the caller ID for incoming calls, or would you have to scroll through a list of providers for that?  What about call waiting and other features?  What real benefit does something like this bring?  Wouldn’t it be much simpler to standardize phones so that they work with all networks and have all carriers provide “Flex Pay” like terms which would allow a customer to switch carriers at will without termination fees?  The customer would still have to buy the phone, but the competition would come from the customer being free to switch carriers whenever they wanted.

  • TJG

    Unregistered (Zero):
    A quick browse of the patent shows that the user would be able to establish a minimum acceptable criteria and an automated method for accepting the lowest bid from a provider that meets them. That could include services, quality, price, among others. It even says bids could be solicited mid-session, say, when one crosses out of a providers service area.I think the bigger problem would be to get the providers to participate. I could see start-ups who wouldn’t have to deal with hardware, contract management, billing, collecting, etc., being interested. But a big name that has already established that infrastructure would probably be reluctant to give it up. They won’t jump until it hits their bottom line.

  • http://www.bus-pc.com Sean

    And who would provide the initial connection to get the list of providers and their “bids”?  Stick to the search business Google.

  • Envomni

    This is ready to become the Gas war all over again. Free market? Guess what will happen. Every Friday at 5pm, prices for a call with start to go up. Then, magically, they’ll drop Monday morning. Reason? “Excessive bandwidth demand over available supply”. Don’t be fooled. This IS what will happen if this supposed bid system kicks in. The companies will just work together to keep the prices high because its in all their best interests to do so.