Is there any other phrase to describe the mobile operators? From Vodafone’s rip-off hamstrung data plans to the O2’s Paddy Tax on the iPhone, they’d take money from a baby to keep their unsustainable ARPUs up. “Hey Baby Phones! No-one has done baby phones. That’s an untapped demographic. We could coat the phones in sugar.”

Supposedly these operators know our business and their own. I guess that explains iMode. But perhaps they are getting a clue? I see Vodafone is shutting down their photo-portal. Ye know, this one:

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](http://www.twango.com/media/conor.public/conor.10032)

Yes, 5MB in total. Actually, it says 5Mb (since the operators do love to charge by the bit), so that’s strictly speaking 640K. Ah, they let Bill Gates design this for them back in 1981. Who would ever need more than 640K?

So what is Vodafone replacing it with, given that they understand the future of mobile so well and Arun Sarin thinks that future is “the internet” (thanks for waking up a decade after everyone else Arun)? Perhaps a deal with the fantastic Pix.ie? Or a rev-share with Nokia on Ovi/Twango? Or Flickr integration?

Nah. As always, paralysed by indecision and slouched in a corner with an SMS hypodermic dangling from their arm, they are doing nothing except killing a pointless unused service.

Eircom are dazzling the hell out of me with their attitude in the past six months. I wonder are the people running Meteor cut from the same cloth? Willing to grasp that nettle, take a short term hit in data revenue and become the dominant mobile fat pipe in Ireland? Let’s hope so since it doesn’t look like Three have the smarts to do it.