Monty Python meets Mobile Operator

We love humour. And occasionally in this space we bump into funny stuff. Some of its so inside humour that it doesn't really translate. But occasionally its stuff that everybody can get.

Our friend William Volk (CEO of MyNuMo in America) was commenting at the Forum Oxford discussion board where 1200 experts in mobile gather to ruminate about the future of the mobile telecoms industry. There someone again attacked the mobile operators / carriers about their greed. This time it happened to be American based carriers, but that is besides the point. We tend to all agree that mobile operators / carriers tend to be still today overly greedy in most markets, so this is a valid complaint.

But William responded with a surprising comment. Yes we do admit that mobile operators / carriers are limiting our access to walled gardens, and cripple our phones and SIM-lock us and punish us in various ways. But on the other hand, there is a lot the mobile operators have given us. Its not unlike the Romans who brought their inventions like indoor plumbing and aquaducts etc when they expanded their empire and brought peace to their domain.

The Romans and their contributions to society while governing their empire, are lampooned brilliantly in the movie Monty Python's Life of Brian. So William paraphrased that famous scene of "What have the Romans ever done for us" and wrote it in telecoms mobile operator terms. Ie what have the carriers ever done for us. Check it out (copied from Forum Oxford, free site but registration required):

Reg: They've bled us white, the bastards. They've taken everything we had, and not just from us, from our fathers, and from our fathers' fathers.

Stan: And from our fathers' fathers' fathers.

Reg: Yeah.

Stan: And from our fathers' fathers' fathers' fathers.

Reg: Yeah. All right, Stan. Don't labour the point. And what have they ever given us in return?!

Xerxes: Text Messaging?

Reg: What?

Xerxes: Text Messaging, you know SMS.

Reg: Oh. Yeah, yeah. They did give us that. Uh, that's true. Yeah.

Commando 3: And premium billing.

Stan: Oh, yeah, premium billing, Reg. Remember what digital content sales on the internet used to be like?

Reg: Yeah. All right. I'll grant you the SMS and the Premium Billing are two things that the Carriers have done.

Matthias: And the games!

Reg: Well, yeah. Obviously the games. I mean, the games go without saying, don't they? But apart from the SMS, the premium billing, and the games--

Commando: Ringtones.

Xerxes: Wallpapers.

Commandos: Huh? Heh? Huh...

Commando 2: WAP.

Commandos: Ohh...

Reg: Yeah, yeah. All right. Fair enough.

Commando 1: And the video.

Commandos: Oh, yes. Yeah...

Francis: Yeah. Yeah, that's something we'd really miss, Reg, if the Carriers left. Huh.

Commando: Content Portals.

Stan: And you can sell 15 seconds of music for $2.99, Reg.

Francis: Yeah, they certainly know how to create a content market. Let's face it. They're the only ones who could on the internet!

Commandos: Hehh, heh. Heh heh heh heh heh heh heh.

Reg: But apart from the SMS, the Billing, Games, Wallpapers, WAP, Video, Content Portals, a $billion content market, and billions of subscribers, what have the Carriers ever done for us?

Xerxes: Created the mobile industry?

Reg: Oh, ind-- Shut up!


THANK YOU WILLIAM !!!  That is priceless. What have the mobile operators ever done for us..