Maurice - On Topic - Qualcomm found a way around the last mile.
Only if the government regulation (read 'interference') sticks. Currently the baby bells are saying 'It's our switching station, and if you want to be hooked into it you are going to pay through the nose.' Without government regulation WLL wouldn't have a prayer in the US. And even with it, it is going to be a challenge. AT&T is currently taking the baby bells through the court system to make them obey the new access laws. As C. M. Armstrong said 'It's going to take a while.'.
Clark
PS OT Just for the record, since I appear to be coming across as believing in America, Home of the Regulated. I believe:
1) Monopolies are inherently stagnating compared to a more open system.
2) However, monopolies still have 'rights', if a corporation can be said to have rights. Being a monopoly in and of itself is not reason to be broken up. (Thus, although the OS-2 situation depresses me, it is not, IMO, sufficient justification to be break up MSFT.)
3) Finally, if a monopoly uses its monopoly power to gain a market that it otherwise could not have obtained, then that is where the line must be drawn. (The whole browser/Compaq thing is a perfect case in point.) Or, if it intentionally locks out what would otherwise be substantially better technology (i.e. AT&T in the 70's.). As to whether that means that they need to be broken up, I, like Surfer Mike, do not know. It needs to be prosecuted to see the facts.
Thought problem: Suppose Microsoft got a wild hair (not to be confused with a wild Hare) up its b**t and decided it wanted to make X [insert your favorite PC peripheral made by someone other than Microsoft]. They then went to every PC vendor and told them 'You must ship with X or we will not allow you to use our operating system (and you will go out of business because no one else makes a PC operating system).' Is this right? Other than the Sherman Anti-Trust Law they would have violated no laws. What punishment should they recieve given the fact that by the time it hits the courts it is likely to be moot? How many times do they need to do this before it is decided that they are a menace to society? I do not know the answers, but the point is that they are tough questions.
PPS Maurice - so that's why 'exhorbitant' was in red. |
