Envoirnmental problems caused by US Cell Phone Companies?

First Walt Mossberg of the Wall Street Journal goes on an intelligent rant about US cell phone companies being like Soviet Ministries who tell you what you may and may not do with the products you purchase from them. He likens this to allowing an Internet Service Provider to tell you what kind of computer you can use or what kind of software you can use on that machine. Of course, he is correct.

Then a story crops up in the New York Times about the EPA spending big bucks to encourage people to recycle their old cell phones. Only 20% of cell phones are recycled according to the article. Does anyone else see a disconnect here?

Phones go into landfills instead of being reused because of the carrier's rules about who may and may not purchase services from them with certain models of cellphone.

My daughter got her phone wet last Summer and we had to pay another $150 to replace it with a junker phone rather than let her use one of my two Sidekick II phones that are still gathering dust.

Mossberg reminds us of the days when you couldn't buy a land line telephone, only rent it from the Monopoly phone company. Soon after the breakup of the Bells one million flowers bloomed in the shape of all kinds of innovative phones.

...and, don't get me started about how slow the "high speed" internet is in the US compared to Japan or Korea. But let's just continue to favor companies over citizens with our government regulations, okay? That way the landfills will grow and we'll all pay more than we should for less service than we deserve.