The second largest wireless operator in the US has recently announced it will allow the use of any device and application on its network. The American wireless market is probably one of the few in the world in which customers are not allowed to use any device with the wireless operator they have chosen. Up until now operators have tightly controlled devices and applications users were able to use on their networks: consumers wishing to adopt Verizon as their wireless carrier have to go to a Verizon store and choose from one of the phones offered by the carrier.

Starting from next year Verizon will let consumers buy and use any kind of device and application on its network as long as it will meet the carrier’s “minimum technical standards” (and work on CDMA networks). Users will be able to pay according to the bandwidth used, without restrictions on the kind of applications they can run on their mobile devices (good news also for mobile developers).

Verizon will keep selling phones at subsidized prices in its stores, bundled with network connectivity and other services, but this won’t be anymore the only option available to consumers.

This is also good news for mobile phone manufacturers like Nokia: they will be able to sell directly to US customers without signing exclusive deals with the carrier. It’s also good for FON: devices won’t be restricted as to the connectivity options available and WiFi phones will probably become popular also in the US.

The rationale behind such an important move from one of the largest carriers in the States is quite clear: the upcoming 700 MHz spectrum auctions will force carriers to open their (new) networks to any device, according to the “open access” rules Google has effectively pushed for. Making their existing network more open now could give Verizon an advantage over its competitors.

This move also comes really close to Google’s recent Android open platform announcement: openness is probably becoming a buzzword, but is also the best way to ensure customers get the kind of innovative devices and applications they are increasingly demanding, a chance for Verizon to satisfy more sophisticated users eager to use mobile data applications on compelling devices competing with Apple’s iPhone.

I have built many internet businesses and in all of these ventures the challenge is always the same: hiring the right people. And of course I am not alone in this. I know that my friends who are also active internet entrepreneurs, people like Niklas Zennström, Tariq Krim, Marc Samwer, David Sifry, Anil De Mello, Sergey Brin, Janus Friis, Loic Le Meur, Brent Hoberman, Lars Hinrichs, and others see hiring well trained smart employees as probably the most important element of their business strategy.

Unfortunately, the best schools in the world have not adapted to the digital world and are not able to educate students for the digital future. Presently there’s a serious mismatch between what digital employers want and what universities train people for. It is for this reason that I am thinking about starting the Digital Academy of Madrid. At this moment this is just an idea which came out of a conversation with Alejandro Piscitelli who runs Educ.ar who had it and it is in the early exploration stage. This idea also comes from my 11 year teaching experience as part time professor at Instituto de Empresa.

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Today two really interesting gadgets arrived at FON offices: a Nokia N810 Internet Tablet and an ASUS Eee PC. They’re both WiFi enabled ultra-portable devices.

Asus managed to pack a complete PC in a super small form factor, a device weighting just 900 grams. It’s on sale in Taiwan for about 250 euros in its full featured version, with a 7″ screen, 4 GB flash drive, 512 MB ram, SD card slot, a great webcam, three USB ports and running a customized Linux OS booting up in less then 20 seconds. Soon it’s going to come in a Windows version and some people were also able to install Mac Os X on it.

The system runs Firefox, Skype, OpenOffice and some great multimedia apps like Amarok and other media players for videos and photos. It’s a device built for Internet surfing and Firefox runs great on it, as do all the most popular web applications. The screen is very small but still usable and you can attach an external monitor and mouse to use it more comfortably.

People are going crazy for this device all around the world and it’s already at the top of the wish list on Amazon and CNET. In two weeks since its launch in the US, Asus has already run out of stock, same thing in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Germany. They plan to sell 3 to 5 millions in 2008. The most interesting thing about this little PC is its incredible price which combined with its small weight and ease of use makes it a great device for kids and students and a perfect gift for Christmas (everybody here at FON seem to want one). FON is in talks with ASUS to make accessing FONspots with an Eee PC really quick and easy.

The Nokia N810 is the successor to the geek’s favorite N800 Internet Tablet. It’s a thin and light mobile device with a huge touchscreen and a sliding keyboard. It’s built to fit nicely in your pocket and has almost all you’d ask to such a device: WiFi, webcam, integrated GPS, 2GB internal storage and a SD slot. It’s a great device, no doubts about it, although its sale price makes it a lot less interesting and groundbreaking when compared to the Eee PC. It runs the new Internet Tablet OS 2008 Linux distribution, based on Maemo, and runs a great Mozilla browser with Flash and Ajax, a mapping application, a media player and will ship with Skype and other Internet telephony applications preinstalled.

It’s an open source platform and there’s a community already at work developing great applications for it. Anyway I think there’s still some work to do for Nokia: installing applications on these devices is something a geek could do quite easily, but not the same can be said for common people. Applications take some time to launch and don’t run smoothly as on the iPhone: it’s a computer-like experience which we are familiar with, but I don’t think this is how a mobile device should work. Nokia also keeps leaving these devices without 3G connectivity, nonetheless they are competing with Apple and RIM for the same limited space in my pockets. My iPhone and BlackBerry keep me always connected, Nokia instead asks me to bring two 500 euros devices with me to get Internet everywhere I go (the N810 and N95).