Comments on: EVDO and the future of the Internet. http://rantless.net/2006/07/09/evdo-and-the-future-of-the-internet/ Sun, 05 Feb 2012 02:30:22 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.0.3 by: timschneider http://rantless.net/2006/07/09/evdo-and-the-future-of-the-internet/#comment-2 Mon, 10 Jul 2006 02:36:18 +0000 http://rantless.net/2006/07/09/evdo-and-the-future-of-the-internet/#comment-2 Hey Martin, thanks for the shoutout. I think what we're more likely to see, rather than AOL's walled garden approach, or the cable TV approach, is a gradual bundling of IP enabled services. VOIP is the easiest example, and according to things I've heard around Comcast already admits to giving preferred access to their own VOIP content. People are used to this sort of bundling, so if Comcast offers VOIP service and degrades everyone elses, people aren't likely to complain, honestly. And then the provider will have exploited their monopoly in one good to gain a monopoly in a complementary good. You can imagine this happening incrementally, and I think the selling point will be security and ease of use. People pay for this, are willing to sacrifice for this, and if Comcast (or Verizon, or whoever) can guarantee that it will always work and integrate smoothly, people simply won't bother to look elsewhere. We'll look back to the day when there were thousands of VOIP providers like we look upon the days of the independent ISPs. As far as other markets like Video, I'm not sure. I don't think Americans look too far beyond US borders for content, and as these companies consolidate, there will be fewer people outside the walled garden. If peering agreements are okay, why not something similar between Verizon, ATT and Comcast for video content? Hey Martin, thanks for the shoutout.
I think what we’re more likely to see, rather than AOL’s walled garden approach, or the cable TV approach, is a gradual bundling of IP enabled services.

VOIP is the easiest example, and according to things I’ve heard around Comcast already admits to giving preferred access to their own VOIP content. People are used to this sort of bundling, so if Comcast offers VOIP service and degrades everyone elses, people aren’t likely to complain, honestly. And then the provider will have exploited their monopoly in one good to gain a monopoly in a complementary good.

You can imagine this happening incrementally, and I think the selling point will be security and ease of use. People pay for this, are willing to sacrifice for this, and if Comcast (or Verizon, or whoever) can guarantee that it will always work and integrate smoothly, people simply won’t bother to look elsewhere. We’ll look back to the day when there were thousands of VOIP providers like we look upon the days of the independent ISPs.

As far as other markets like Video, I’m not sure. I don’t think Americans look too far beyond US borders for content, and as these companies consolidate, there will be fewer people outside the walled garden. If peering agreements are okay, why not something similar between Verizon, ATT and Comcast for video content?

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