Charlie Rose this week held a wide-ranging interview with Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg.

On the surface, it seemed a pretty tame affair, with Seidenberg dispensing corporate bromides that would make Verizon investors smile -- and Rose happily egging him on.

But behind the hype was a back story that should be cause for concern.

When pressed on Verizon’s stance on Net Neutrality, Seidenberg told Rose:

"We happen to agree with the whole idea that the network should be open. The Internet should be available. So that anything you want to order from any place and download, you can do it. We are for the whole idea of open standards for pulling down information. "

Then, Rose pressed him on the type of business Verizon wants to move into next. Seidenberg said:

"The things that we would like to do is add value to the network by getting into more applications... What we would like to be able do is own the rights to distribute any piece of content, that we would pay for the rights to package and bundle it and distribute it. That would give us a new dimension to our business. "

Had Rose been more savvy, he might have pressed Seidenberg about possible conflicts between the first answer and the second.

Might problems arise when a network provider and carrier (even one that publicly pledges to keep the network open) is also offering applications over that network?

Will Verizon’s desire to block competing applications be too strong to resist?

Verizon’s primary competitor in the wireless space, AT&T, is actively blocking new applications -- including Skype and SlingPlayer -- that compete with its core businesses.

As Verizon rolls out its new breed of "smart phones" to compete with AT&T's iPhone offering -- we’ll no doubt see the communications giant give in to temptation and close their "open" network.