Pricing and Internet Architecture

Frisky070802 writes "The Politech list recently posted a pointer to a new paper (pdf) by UMN prof Andrew Odlyzko, which compares the telecom industry to the historical transportation industry (railroad, bridges, and such). One quote, from the conclusion, is particularly interesting: '... the networking industry [has] devoted inordinate efforts to technologies such as ATM and QoS, even though there was abundant evidence these were not going to succeed. One can go further and say that essentially all the major networking initiatives of the last decade, such as ATM, QoS, RSVP, multicasting, congestion pricing, active networks, and 3G, have turned out to be duds. Furthermore, they all failed not because the technical solutions that were developed were inadequate, but because they were not what users wanted.'"

Comments

Exactly...

[Eric_Cartman_South_P]

Furthermore, they all failed not because the technical solutions that were developed were inadequate, but because they were not what users wanted.

Perfectly stated. All I want and care for from an ISP is a good stable connection. That's why I've been with AOL for six montH^@@!0%$*ATDT[NO CARRIER]

Nice quote from the article....

[twoslice]

From the article under the heading Open Systems and innovation:

The power to price discriminate, especially for a monopolist, is like the power of taxation, something that can be used to destroy.

Sounds a lot like Microsoft to me....

Re:3G

[Tim C]

I'm not buying screen savers and ringers that expire in 90 or 120 days

Your screensavers and tones expire?! I think I begin to see why Americans always seem to be so critical and sceptical of advances in mobile phone technology - expiring downloads, network-locked phones, etc; you guys are being screwed.