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 : The *NEW* Frank Coluccio Technology Forum -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: fred g who wrote (15611)	6/23/2006 4:44:35 PM
From: Sun Tzu	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 46821

I think a simple way to cut through all the farce is to note this: Cable and Telecoms already charge content providers a higher price for the higher bandwidth they use. So all their talk about consumers being left with the bag to subsidize the big corporations like Google is pure BS. Google pays for its own bandwidth. The real issue is that teclcos want to prevent consumers from accessing cheap voice over ip. They see that Skype for example let's you call across the world for pennies and they don't like it. By modifying the QoS, and playing with the time in transit, they can make it such that the quality is too poor for VoIP but ok for email. And that is what they are really after. Of course they are not coming out and saying it, rather they claim to be fighting for cheap prices for the consumers...now really, when was the last time a TelCo really cared about protecting the consumers? ST

To: fred g who wrote (15611)	6/23/2006 8:45:56 PM
From: Frank A. Coluccio	Respond to of 46821

Fred, when assessing monopoly conditions let's compare the conditions we now have in 2006 to those of 1977, prior to divestiture. Things were starting to look up then in areas of terminal gear and "other common carrier" proliferation, given the advances made possible by Carterfone and MCI's early victories in the courts. But prior to the introduction of Teleport in the corporate sector and some of the cable operators' initiatives a decade later in the cable modem space, barring Citizens' Band Radio, things were very bleak for anyone seeking alternative modes of access of any type. Today, in contrast, we still have the latter unwavering stalwarts in place, but there are also a growing selection of wireless alternatives, and for the brave and amply funded few, there is satellite, as well. Each day members of my family use a half-dozen different service providers to communicate: RCN wireline and cablemodem; across town there is Verizon wireless and TW cablemodem; Blackberry by Sprint; Treo by Cingular; Cablevision's IP Voice. And then there is Skype. We don't need satellite, and haven't found a need yet for the neighborhood wifi clouds that are beginning to sprout up, and several of my children have already cancelled T-Mobile for a better deal. Unquestionably, the main thing that the ILECs and MSOs jointly monopolize today is Fiber. And unfortunately, fiber is the most important network element to be had of them all.