The great thing about the free market is that, for the most part, we see the kinks naturally worked out of the systems we use. Remember all the kinks we put up with back in the days of Windows 3.0? Remember those big, lumbering cell phones our grandparents had in the back of their cars? Well, competition in a free market typically leads to streamlining and continual improvements. Unless…

… you have an oligopoly.

When you have an oligopoly like we do in the cell phone industry, you get these nagging “dammit, when are they going to get around to fixing this sh*t” thoughts over and over and over. It nags and it tugs.

Well, my pet peev right now is the way the cell phone industry handles SMS texting. Fact is, SMS is a big freakin’ rip off. But it’s not just a rip off, the price of texting keeps going up (unless you’re willing to pay as much for an unlimited texting plan as a high-speed Internet connection).

You might think this is an over-reaction, but in reality, it’s a joke. Cell phones use far more energy and data capacity for 1 second of voice then they would for hundreds of text messages. In fact, one person calculated that if you were charged the same data rate for voice as you are for texting you would pay something like $40 per second of a phone conversation.

What you have in cell phone industry is an Oligopoly that controls the gateway of it’s cash cow while stifling consumer rights. They are trying to milk this cash cow for all it’s worth (thus price hikes lately). Eventually, this gate will come crashing down and texting will cost what it should cost – nothing. It’s going to take a lot of power and a lot of leverage. And it’s going to take some kind of disruptive technology. You know who’s looking into it right?

Ever here of a company called Google. And it’s friend Android?