DISQUS

Richard Bennett · 2 years ago

It's official: Tim Wu is a communist.

Seriously, however, the net neutrality activists who over-sold their cause so egregiously in the last session of Congress seem to feel compelled to over-sell the over-sold fears by taking it into areas where they don't have a shred of a case. The "Save The Internet" coalition funded by Google (by way of Moveon) is now demanding free broadband for everybody, and here we have Prof. Wu, who actually should know better, taking on the highly-competitive cell phone market.

I suppose this indicates that it's even easier to commit adultery the second time.
Bob Jacobson · 2 years ago

The continuing consolidation of the telephone market, landline and cellular, can lead to only one thing: monopolization. Sure, in addition to a dominant one or two providers, there is a struggling train of stragglers. But there were multiple suppliers during the former AT&T;'s reign, too. No one was deceived by the existence of Podunk Telephone in Paducah that AT&T; wasn't in supreme control. All common carriage service tends to end in monopolistic market control through consolidation, collusion, or regulation. It's an axiom of business, supported by the entirety of utility history in America. To paraphrase The Who, soon, too soon, the "new" AT&T; (the former SBC) is the same as the old one. The rest hardly matter.