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When you control the pipes, you control the ecosystem. At the very least, you can impose your will on a good portion of the environment. This is what the mobile industry has come down to in the United States. Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile and Sprint have as much or more say about the devices that eventually reach consumers hands than the platform providers or manufacturers.

Why do Android device updates take so long? Ask the carriers. Why are there half a dozen different skins for Android smartphones? Ask the carriers. Why do high-end smartphones cost what they do? Ask the carriers. Why did Nokia have to wait to enter the U.S. market with its new Lumia line? Ask the carriers. Why are there a ton of different versions of the Samsung Galaxy? Ask ... you get the picture.

In March the CEOs of Sprint, Verizon and AT&T took the stage at CTIA in Orlando for a lively discussion about the state of the mobile ecosystem and its future. The keynote was affable with an undertone of drama, coming two days after AT&T announced that it was acquiring T-Mobile for $39 billion.

The CEOs returned to the stage today at the CTIA Enterprise & Apps conference in San Diego. A lot has changed from March. Sprint has sued AT&T to prevent the T-Mobile merger and is fighting for its livelihood as a major U.S. carrier. Sprint CEO Dan Hesse took a couple swipes at AT&T head man Ralph de la Vega but overall the carriers spoke about working together and how they are pushing the bounds of mobile innovation in the United States. Check out our Storify of the keynote below.

Sprint Nextel legally joined the growing chorus of objections to AT&T's plans to acquire T-Mobile today when it filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C.

The company, which is the third largest wireless carrier in the United States, reiterated its concerns over the deal, primarily that it would push the wireless industry toward a duopoly controlled by AT&T and Verizon, limiting innovation and consumer choice. The proposed merger, which the lawsuit calls "brazenly anticompetitive" would make life harder for smaller carriers like Sprint, who would be in less of a position to competitively challenge the two dominant players.

AT&T's plans to acquire T-Mobile recieved a setback today when the U.S. Justice Department filed an antitrust complaint requesting that the deal be blocked, Bloomberg reported.

The controversial plan, which was announced in March, would result in AT&T paying $39 billion to acquire T-Mobile from its parent company Deutsche Telekom. AT&T touted the merger as a way to roll out Long Term Evolution (LTE) 4G networks to more customers and foster innovation. Some of its competitors and a few lawmakers have been more skeptical of the deal, while a group of customers have sued AT&T in an attempt to block the merger.

Add Sprint to the telcos looking to get into the cloud services market. According to Roger Cheng, Sprint will be offering "hosted collaboration services" to small and medium-sized businesses using its data center to provide capacity.

Two new apps are helping improve the online customer experience by tying in advanced communications technologies in interesting ways. The apps, MyCyberTwin and Radish System's ChoiceView, offer to remove some of the misery and tedium involved in getting help and have wide potential applications in customer support, problem resolution, and other situations. Deplolyed properly, they could increase conversion rates and improve the delivery of online customer service. Let's take a closer look at both.

AT&T has just announced its intention to buy T-Mobile USA from parent company Deutsche Telekom in a cash-and-stock transaction valued at approximately $39 billion. Both boards of directors have approved the deal, which would make AT&T the largest wireless company in the United States, assuming the deal passes regulator approval.

The acquisition will allow AT&T to improve network quality for both companies' customers, says AT&T, while also enabling it to expand its 4G/LTE deployment to 95% of the U.S. population.

If you've jailbroken your iPhone and installed a tethering app like MyWi, be warned that AT&T is reportedly sending letters out to others who have done so saying "we've noticed your service plan may need updating." According to a letter posted by the blog OSX Daily, AT&T has begun detecting the practice of unauthorized tethering and is going to start charging people doing it under official tethering subscription plans later this month.

Is this an unjust restriction on the use of data we've already paid for? Is it a logical move to keep the whole of the network sustainable at a time of heavy demand? Is it, in a way, good news to know that despite the fact that it's a violation of your contract - you'll still be allowed to use tethering if you just pay a small monthly fee? That really depends on your perspective.

AT&T has announced ShopAlerts, a new location-based service featuring ads and coupons from major retailers which are sent directly to subscribers' mobile phones. Initially, the service will be available in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and San Francisco with sponsors including HP, Kmart, JetBlue, SC Johnson, Kibbles 'n Bits, Nature's Recipe and the National Milk Mustache "got milk?" Campaign.

What makes this new, opt-in service unique is that the alerts are only sent to users' devices when they are near a participating store or brand.

When I first saw this article about a recent mobile developer poll, I thought I had misread things. Did it really just say "AT&T was ranked best operator?" Yes, yes it did. Apparently, Evans Data Corporation (EDC), an IT industry market intelligence firm, surveyed over 385 mobile developers, asking them in-depth questions about mobile platforms, device development, deployment, app stores, porting, development issues, requirements and much more, and summarized the findings in a new report released just this month.

Of course, the headline here is that the developers overwhelming said that AT&T was the best mobile carrier in terms of the capabilities offered to developers. Is this the iPhone effect realized? Or is it something more? Let us know your thoughts in this week's poll.