Japan - screamingly fast open mobile networks

Its worth exploring the future of mobile a bit - which is Japan, led by Sacchio Semoto, who opened up long distance (KDDI) AND broadband E-access) in the 1990s, and in 2005 formed e-Mobile. It launched its HSPA network at 5Mbps in 2007, and in 2009 rolled out HSPA+ at 21Mbps. Its only in the major cities so far, but rolling out via dongles for laptops - so open access. The prices vary according to monthly bitcap.

The important element of this story is that the entrant aggressively persued open access, not walled gardens - like 3 in Europe but on steroids. That has forced DoCoMo and others to respond, with nationwide HSPA, and UQ Comms has entered the market with WiMAX at 40Mbps in cities.

That type of competition has really changed the original DoCoMo walled garden into super-fast open data.

For other countries, we can dream, if only...