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July 8, 2003
Mob telecom
I have come to believe that the telco industry, as we knew it pre-2000, will never be the same again, in spite of the efforts of the FCC and other regulatory bodies (somewhat like the unsuccessful efforts to stop foreign automakers in the 80's). A tear opened in the telecom network time-space continuum in the 90's, and it can't be closed again.
A correlary to Isenberg's "Rise of the Stupid Network" is that disruptive start-up network operators don't have to be as "intelligent" or well-funded as their predecessors. At the same time as the incumbents fumble with how to address The Last Mile Issue, hundreds, maybe thousands, of planned communities, WISPs, municipalities, and dark fiber vendors are working on tiny parts of the problem, fueled in part by the immobilization of the telecom industry. The much ridiculed "ma and pa" service providers of the 90's are now moving on to tackle Layer2 and Layer1.
These initiatives are small and fragile now, but they are gaining momentum and credibility, and they are being watched closely by lots of other communities and service providers, who will start their own initiatives at the first sign of non-failure. They have a huge advantage in that they are incredibly simple, relative to the existing telco network, and can develop rapidly and inexpensively, two words which until recently did not exist in telco terminology or practice.
Posted by pete at July 8, 2003 12:22 PM