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

To: Frank A. Coluccio who wrote (31378)	9/17/2009 2:02:05 AM
From: axial	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 46821

Frank, that's an interesting perspective. It co-opts some (but not all) of the views from other directions. "Structural separation would give the incumbents new-found freedoms from the burdens of facilities management, and at the same time allow them to aggressively go after the content end where all the gravy's being made." Well OK; if it's that simple (and that beneficial) why aren't they doing it? "...that they have been institutionalized for such a long time at this point, just like a patient that's spent too much time in a hospital, or a prisoner who's spent the last half-decade in a penitentiary, that they wouldn't know how to compete without the vertical hooks they have enjoyed for so long into the outside plant." I don't disagree, but it goes further than that: there's a whole cottage industry that's grown around the incumbents. It includes lawyers, media, lobbyists, legislators, and regulators. "Methinks they merely need a little push, is all." This is where I think Crossy (and perhaps you) miss my meaning: they don't call these interests "entrenched" for nothing. It's not just the astroturfing, the litigation, the lobbying, the regulatorium, the legislators, the advertising etc., as activities in themselves. The practitioners are in fact economically dependent, to different degrees, on the incumbents. They too have a vested interest in perpetuating status quo. --- Take a look at reactions of entrenched interests in the health care debate. Do you really believe "a little push" will enable constructive change in US telecomms? Jim