Well, this is interesting:  Verizon has announced that they’re opening their wireless network to outside devices by the end of 2008.  Specifically, they will allow activation of any device that meets their to-be-published “minimum technical standard”.

You may have seen my previous rant about open and neutral wireless networks.   Verizon’s news certainly seems like a big step in the right direction.   Let’s hope that (a) the technical standards are not onerous, and (b) they offer reasonable wireless plans for non-Verizon devices.

With this news, Apple’s coming iPhone SDK, and Google’s Android, maybe the US still has a chance of making its wireless network infrastructure competitive (e.g. open) with the rest of the world.