The internet is over!

[tw]

Originally Posted by Elspode

Like so much of the current technology, there are no directly comparable historical models to serve as a basis to guide legislation or business practices toward a workable solution.

That just is not true. Start with history of what created the AT&T monopoly to appreciate deja vue. Read Clayton Christensen's "Innovators Dilemma" to appreciate how many different ways this 'conflict' can be resolved.

It always comes down to a bottom line question. What is the purpose of that corporation? Profits? Or is its product the purpose? One well proven historical trend is that when a company has a virtual monopoly, then its purpose changes - from product oriented to profit oriented. The former having customers who are provided innovative services. The latter being companies such as Robert Allen's AT&T (pre- SBC), General Motors, 1970-2000 Xerox, Carly Fiorina's HP, Spindler and Sculley's Apple Computer, Aker's and Cannavino's IBM, etc.

What big IP companies may be doing today has been long and well recorded in history. A long list of government laws and regulations eventually result - that the industry deserves due to becoming profit oriented rather than product oriented.

UT has assumed that market forces will keep broadband providers honest. I wish it were so. Sometimes history says it does. But not always. Actions to subvert small VoIP (and other new technology) services suggests that these large IP companies may become so anti-innovative as to cannibalize on smaller fish (ie Skype) rather than grow and live off of innovation. History of American business repeats that story. Creation of AT&T, as most of us knew it, is a near duplication of what happens when big fish cannibalize little fish rather than compete honestly.