Friday, October 18, 2013

A Game Changer From T-Mobile


Starting October 20st for new accounts (and October 31st for existing accounts), T-Mobile is offering nearly unlimited international data roaming for its US customers. I remember the days of roaming within the US where you would pay roaming charges for phone calls outside your home network area (which, back then, were narrowly drawn).  Those were the days when banking and many other services were not truly nationalized within the US. Interstate commerce had its internal borders.

That eventually gave way to unlimited nationwide roaming and the now commoditized domestic mobile phone and data service. Most other inter-state barriers have now fallen.  T-Mobile's move to remove international data roaming across its broad network is groundbreaking and will, in due course, serve as an international leveler. It's high time. Kudos, T-Mobile!

Wednesday, October 16, 2013

A Call for a More Perfect Political Union

Today's Senate passing of a bill to end the fiscal impasse delivers a stinging defeat for hard liners in Congress. While the opportunity to come together and work as a proper legislative body was lost long ago, I continue to fear that the idiocy of the far right will continue in to the next budget discussion only months away.  How members of a legislative body can be elected and serve with such destructive political philosophies continues to bewilder me. Creation of consensus from wide ranging viewpoints, not the perpetuation of poles, is the true sign of leadership. I call upon my friends from all political leanings to pledge to form a new political class which does just that. I suspect that history will not judge kindly this epoch and the errant cowboys who held our Federal government hostage for two weeks; let history also note that this low point served as a foundation for a better and more sound political union. For now, I am thankful that this ugly episode has passed. God bless America and guide her to that more stable place.