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The Technology Liberation Front is the tech policy blog dedicated to keeping politicians' hands off the 'net and everything else related to technology.
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Cutting the (Video) Cord: The Shift to Online Video Continues

Started by TLF · 9 months ago

Back in the mid- and even late 1990s, I was engaged in a lot of dreadfully boring telecom policy debates in which the proponents of regulation flatly refused to accept the argument that the hegemony of wireline communications systems would ever be seriously challenged by wireless networks. Well, ... Continue reading »

1 comment

  • quanticle

    6 months ago

    The paper argues that the incentives toward openness are so strong, open devices and networks have a nearly insurmountable advantage over closed, proprietary devices and networks.

    Yet, there is a market in which closed devices are the norm: cell phones. The US cell-phone market is dominated by phones that are only capable of doing what the phone company allows the phone to do. Yes, it is possible to purchase an unlocked phone, but that incurs an often significant cost.

    I think there are two equilibria here - one in which device makers and network operators collaborate (i.e. the cell phone model), and one in which device makers and network operators remain independent (the internet model). I'm not convinced that the market from internet access is incapable of switching to the cell-phone market equilibrium.
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