[10442] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
bill text draft 2: Telecommunications Competition Act (fwd)
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Craig A. Finseth)
Wed Feb 23 10:47:35 1994
Date: Wed, 23 Feb 1994 09:46:37 -0600
From: "Craig A. Finseth" <fin@unet.umn.edu>
To: bzs@world.std.com
Cc: jeffgs@netcom.com, horn%temerity@leia.polaroid.com, com-priv@psi.com
In-Reply-To: Barry Shein's message of Tue, 25 Jan 1994 01:36:02 -0500 <199401250636.AA09490@world.std.com>
Now, as a comparison, let's take one of the most unregulated
industries in the United States: Newspapers.
Repeat above exercise.
OK:
Industry: Newspapers
Major Companies: Gannet, a couple of others
Total Market Share (US): I dunno, around 85%?
Now list the smaller community players who have benefited in each of
those industries:
Industry: Newspapers
Smaller, Local Community Players: Um, er, hmmm.
ok, now ask yourself if there is possibly any relationship evident
here.
Umm, they're the same?
Ask yourself again, is this all a coincidence?
Not at all. Both are capital-intensive industries that have large
barriers to new players. Properly run, they even have good economies
of scale.
Do you believe, for example, that regulating the newspaper industry
would improve "universal access for commercial content providers"?
I think some illusions need to be shattered here, badly.
Perhaps you need a different example?
Craig
