Connectivity
Consider a company conrolling the market for washing machines by leveraging control of the market for a special type of electricity necessary to make washing machines work. The fact that washing machines clean poorly does not matter. The arrival of generic electricity opens the washing machine business to everyone, and the washing machine electric company needs to find a new business model or go out of business. The Internet provides generic connectivity freeing communications from the telephone network.
Breaking the linkage between networks and content sets communication free. Improvements in connectivity in terms of capacity, performance, reliability, and ubiquity can occur without regard to specific applications. The nature of monopoly leaves local access as the bottleneck limiting connectivity.
Means to connectivity include:
Cable Modem:
Broadband Reports
DSL:
Charlie Hoffman & Covad
Dan Moffat & New Edge Networks
Fiber:
Terry McGarty & Merton Group
Francois Menard & Community Fiber
Dave Shaeffer & Cogent
Wi-Fi Hotspot:
Adam Shand & Personal Telco
Wireless ISP:
Skyriver
Powerline:
Low Orbit Satellite:
Other:
Connectivity Timeline:
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