Comments on: Why There Won’t Be Broadband Competition Anytime Soon

By: GigaOM Cheat Sheet for National Broadband Plans

GigaOM Cheat Sheet for National Broadband Plans — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 17:00:40 +0000

[...] This is also true of cable television, was true for landline phone service and will likely be true for wireless broadband service for a few more years. Most consumers have the choice of a cable provider or a telecommunications [...]

By: America May Get Broadband for Free, But Porn Will Cost You - GigaOM

America May Get Broadband for Free, But Porn Will Cost You - GigaOM — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 22:04:57 +0000

[...] may have to eat my words about the unliklihood of wireless broadband competition, but I’ll wait until the networks are up and devices are out before admitting [...]

By: VoIP News » Blog Archive » Mystery VoIP Technology to Compete with WiMax?

Mon, 13 Oct 2008 11:44:35 +0000

[...] low-power, mobile broadband service that would be a cheaper alternative to cellular and possibly to other wireless broadband efforts, that’s pretty sweet, but it seems a little too good to be [...]

By: Mystery Mobile VoIP Technology Available Next Month? - GigaOM

Mystery Mobile VoIP Technology Available Next Month? - GigaOM — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 20:08:31 +0000

By: Morris Callaman, Esq.

Morris Callaman, Esq. — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 18:44:51 +0000

Re: Impatient. You are either selfish or stupid. Lead, follow, or get out of the way.

By: Journalist Goes Missing After Outing Google’s Latest Evil Plan | TekPopuli

Sat, 27 Sep 2008 13:08:53 +0000

[...] trying to endeavour the image of the ideal corporate citizen. Other nefarious plans included their recent bid to “Free the Airwaves“, which was later found out to be a sophisticated way for Google to [...]

By: DailyWireless » Blog Archive » Friday Links: In-Flight Calls, 802.11

DailyWireless » Blog Archive » Friday Links: In-Flight Calls, 802.11 — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 11:40:28 +0000

[...] Gigaom talks about why there won’t be any competition in the broadband arena anytime soon. Interesting stuff. [...]

By: Jesse Kopelman

Jesse Kopelman — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 22:15:15 +0000

Yes Tony, that is the correct solution. Unfortunately, Verizon and AT&T are far more powerful than most government agencies and they don’t want to play along (event though it is actually in their best interest).

By: Tony Casson

Tony Casson — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 22:11:52 +0000

Only in rare instances do we shop for providers of electricity to our home - instead we shop for the refrigerators, televisions and lights that use the electricity - the apps not the network.

Plug fiber into every home sell it cheaply from a monopoly or dupoly provider and let the market competition be for the app layer.

By: Impatient

Impatient — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 19:36:36 +0000

Let me translate all that for you:

"BOO HOO HOO! NOBODY'S GOING TO NEWTEEVEE.COM! WHOA IS ME! IT'S SOMEBODY ELSE'S FAULT!"

By: Jesse Kopelman

Jesse Kopelman — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 19:29:32 +0000

The original D block auction failed because of the build-out requirements not the reserve price. Original requirement was 75% in 5 years and it was a single national license. The difference between a 40% build-out in a regional license and a 75% build-out in a national license is a lot more than the difference in reserve price.

Anyway, the White Spaces thing is the only one that has any chance of actually improving competition on a national scale and only if it remains unlicensed or non-exclusively licensed and only if high power is allowed in rural areas. That's a lot of ifs. It is clear at this point that anything involving exclusive licenses that look like they have any intention of being built-out will just be bought by incumbents.

By: Local Government

Local Government — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 18:35:48 +0000

Look no further to the local governments and exclusive franchise agreements to explain the ‘duopoly.’