9:39 PM
V: I wonder how this Net Neutrality thing will pan out.It is interesting, because I have difficulty conceiving of the telecom industry as being particularly astute in any fashion.
But it's quite amazing so far how much they seem to have accomplished. Well, let's ignore the actual merit of the arguments for a moment. Let's just look at who is on what side. Content providers all want net neutrality, because this is how can ensure their own survival. This means Google, Netflix, Hulu, Facebook...
Carriers wants net neutrality done away with, because this could lead to all sorts of market advantages in terms of optimising revenues or pushing their own content businesses.
I guess this could be a skewed portrayal, but it does really suggest a different type of management. It suggests on one side you have a bunch of much more agile and competitive companies trying to ensure a level playing field - that they do not have to compete in terms of basic access but in terms of services.
It gives this feeling that these carriers are just these lumbering giants who can only think in terms of their monopolies. I get this same impression from how some big media companies seem to operate. That they almost begrudge the need to create a product. That it is this burden for them to have to actually make something so that they can transfer money from your wallet to theirs, and if they could just find a way to charge you directly without this unnecessary intermediary of providing a good or service, they would happily do so.
I think that companies of this sort actually can be very successful and profitable, but that it's not sustainable. This kind of operation does not lend itself to astute or clever action, so these organisations have no ability to actually compete on merit.
This is a very interesting political battle, because it is really a fight between two large corporate groups. It isn't the public against corporations (since we already know that the public almost always loses in these cases.)
