The only positive side of the carriers is their network, but even if there were no at&t or Tmobile and all we had was people with wifi modems at home we (the public) would have came up with solutions like boingo and wefi and mesh networking (meraki) to spread around the wifi. Nokia and the community of programmers and app writers contribute more to mobile innovation and fun then the carriers ever will or could.
They are being helped and at the same time they are somewhat hindering the people and companies that help them. Nokia has thousands of patents on wireless technology and they (Nokia-siemens ) are the ones speeding up EDGE improving the carriers ability to deliver.
Where are all the carrier employees on this maemo council trying to make it a better, funner, more usable OS? There are none.
I bet that AT&T guy/s on symbian foundation is there mostly to figure out how to cripple the OS. I'm sure he's not there to contribute much other than "will it work on AT&T and can i cripple it?"
When is the last time you heard a carrier make a significant contribution to a council or group that led to more innovation? Did they get forced into it or in some way pressured into it?
Most of these carriers are like big stupid obnoxious bullies standing around going "Don't call me dumb!"
Well compared to the programmers and Manufacturers and even a portion of the end users they are!
If they start trying to cripple our Nokia tablets then I better get a Vertu tablet with sapphires and liquid metal on it to make up for it.