Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Technology Stocks : Amazon.com, Inc. (AMZN) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Bill Harmond who wrote (97527)	3/26/2000 8:44:00 PM
From: Sam Citron	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 164687

Carriers plan on controlling who offers content and for how much. Gee that sounds like the Russian economy circa 1985. What a great model to emulate!! Sorry, William, but the scenario you paint is short-term at best. Don't worry about it if your portfolio turnover rate exceeds 100%, but carriers are merely conduits, and will maximize their returns competing on openness rather than trying to balkanize the web. Can you imagine this scenario: Sprint will only let you buy a burger from McD's on its network, while ATT will only permit you to buy a burger from Burger King. You think consumers are going to swallow this? How long before someone figures out that they will make more money by enhancing consumer choice? Those are the realities because these are fee-based services and the carriers are looking at this as a chance to recoup their huge capital investment and reduce churn. And what makes ordering a burger or a weather forecast any more likely to be a fee-based service if it is wireless than if it is done through a cable or telephone line connection? There are many ways for carriers to recoup their costs including subscription models, bit-based models, time-based models, advertising models, transaction fee models, etc. Carriers have been shooting themselves in the foot for decades thinking they were maximizing profits by charging the highest rates they could get, even when their networks were 90% unutilized, seemingly never having heard of price elasticity of demand. They learn at a glacial pace. Too bad they are so dense when it comes to elementary network economics.