By Leslie Cauley, USA TODAY
NEW YORK — AT&T and Verizon Wireless lately have embraced the idea of giving consumers greater control over the wireless devices and applications they use, such as e-mail, downloading and picture-sharing.

Warming up to “consumer choice” is a new riff, to say the least. For years, both have pushed cheap, subsidized handsets to grow their wireless businesses; they penalized these same customers by imposing a raft of restrictions on devices and applications.

SPAM ON YOUR CELLPHONE? System could cause headaches

Meanwhile, Google (GOOG) has been trying to tell cellphone carriers how to run their wireless businesses and treat customers.

Who? While it’s a monster in desktop Web searches, Google is just another widget on the handset in the mobile world — like Yahoo (YHOO) or e-mail. Google has no wireless experience or even a customer care unit.

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