| reply to audiog
Re: Jump from one STUPID idea to another... With all the marketshare voip has, calls within any one territory will not bankrupt voip companies (even if it were the draconian price of .25 per minute). Only one rboc has the power to compete with voip or anything else that comes down the pike from cable companies, a-la docis, wired or wireless- Verizon. The other rbocs are too disorganized and weak to compete with new -significant- buildouts of broadband-wireless, vdsl, or fiber. Mergers could change this dynamic, but not likely. (bellsouth/qwest linkup? at&t/qwest?, at&t/bellsouth?, who knows)
Market forces will 'override' rboc attempts at QOS and metering division/partition of the internet. This is not to say there won't be significant bumps along the road, or lack of a road/roadmap altogether. Rbocs know this, but can try to shape the path to their liking or waste energy trying to fight against the status-quo (initially the latter). Laggy deployment of dsl is finally a matter of public record. Now that Verizon has the green light for FTTP, the only 'leash' left is the threat of re-regulation (of wired)/deregulation (of wirless). Voip & competitive wired/wireless services will shape the future, the fcc can only hope Verizon and other rbocs 'play nice'.
Not all areas of the U.S.A. are ready for hundreds of megabits of access "per subscriber" on a residental level, and I suspect won't be for at least 10+years (as the market forces are just not 'there'). This is unfortunate. There will be many re-alignments, and I suspect some cable/media companies will merge with robc(s) to create the scale necessary and will meet with resistance (a-la Dubai ports World/Ma-Bell dejavu).
AT&T is stalling for time.. to figure out how to deploy a futureproof network without succumbing to a company identity crisis similar to Time Warner/Aol. Floating different trial-balloons all-the-while. Honestly, how many of these similar press releases have we seen in the past 5 years from the former and new(some would say not improved) AT&T? |
