Vodafone Adds YouTube To Live LineupVodafone Adds YouTube To Live Lineup

Vodafone has been busy as it prepares to head into the 3GSM World Congress next week. Earlier this week, it announced a deal to offer MySpace to its subscribers. Then the rumor mill was abuzz with news that Vodafone was in talks with other carriers to launch a new mobile search service. Then Vodafone announced a partnership with eBay. And now we get news that Vodafone is about to launch YouTube. What a week.Vodafone is busy beefing up it's mobile Web portal, Vodafone Live, so it can get lots of good press next week. But, does anyone outside of the media really care?

As we turn to 3GSM, let's look at one of the wireless industry's most repeated questions: When will the walled garden finally come down?

See, for all the cool content on Vodafone Live, it's still a portal controlled by the carrier. This is equally true for many other mobile content offerings around the world.

When a brand as big and powerful as YouTube is forced to meet carriers like Vodafone on the carrier's terms, it's a sign the walled garden is still firmly in place.

Almost everyone in the wireless industry has complained about the walled garden for the last six years, but it has shown no sign of going away.

It's time to be honest. The carriers aren't going to abandon their walled gardens anytime soon, no matter how many people complain. Why should they? They paid billions for their networks and spectrum. Why are they going to suddenly embrace net neutrality? There is no reason to think they will.

The only hope that the walls might come down is if a few maverick carriers, like the UK's 3, force them to by stealing away customers with open mobile Internet access. If not, don't bet on a real mobile Web anytime soon.