TechBlog.TheVanguard.Org

For years, the phone company has been able to leverage its monopoly over the market and force people to buy services from it rather than competing in an open and free market. For instance, with only one phone provider they could charge whatever they wanted for long distance. Now that I can buy my services on the outside of my Internet connection, I can use Vonage over the Internet and pay less for local and long distance than I paid for just a standard analog line from Bell before the Internet. The phone company hates this and wants an Internet that allows them to sell services from the inside of the network at inflated prices. In other words, they cannot compete in a free market and want to use the legal system in this country to stifle competition, creativity and progress. A prominent telephone company executive recently said home users don’t need more than 1 megabit of bandwidth to the public Internet. I’ve had more than that since 2000! The only explanation for this is that the executive in question sees the Internet as useless and intends for us to buy all our services from him. This backwards-leaning look at technology is proof positive that the telephone companies (and now cable operators) in this country do not want technology to advance and in fact want to bring us back into the dark ages so they do not have to compete in the new economy.

In the 1980s and 1990s, Telephone Company executives made some monumental mistakes regarding broadband and technology. Rather than come into the right century and realize that consumers didn’t want their over-managed solutions, the Telcos invested heavily in circuit-switch technology which makes the entire network “smarter” than it should be. Since then, they have been crippled and unable to do much. Fat, dumb pipes should be offered, and the cable operators seized on it. This is why you have Vonage today.

Recently, an AT&T executive made the comment that people don’t need more than 1Mbps of Internet broadband in their homes (most cable operators now offer 3-15Mbps) because you can’t tell a difference for web surfing. While it may be true that this isn’t required for surfing, he discounts IP telephony, IPTV, streaming audio and video, online gaming, business transactions, and a host of other important services people purchase for use over their broadband Internet.

Consumers want big fat dumb pipes they can use to buy whatever services they want from whatever companies they want. Since the Telcos do no know how to make money in this business model, they attempt to do the same thing that has been going for years with them – they try to hold us all back.

This article demonstrates this point well. They want to manage every resource in your home from television to Internet to email. If you don’t use their service, they’ll refuse to support it or even block it. This seems extreme, but some recent goings-on (read my blog entry about Congress’ action last week) tell us that the Telcos would like to hurt people like Vonage. Own a Mac? Use Vonage? Want a third-party telephone or gaming provider? Forget it if the Telcos have their way! AT&T, Verizon and even some cable operators would love to force you to use their over-priced services and stamp out the competition (then, we’re headed back to court to break them all apart again!) Worse yet, only their gear would be supported. Mac and Linux users would be in the most trouble. I’ve heard (true) horror stories from friends where Bell technicians tried to cut into their iMacs, break apart their iBooks and even flat out tell them that PowerBook G4s and MacBook Pro’s don’t support DSL access (!!!)

The executive set at the Telcos do not understand this economy and should leave. New blood is required if they are going to continue making a profit in the 21st Century economy. This new economy requires a versatility to which men of such minds simply cannot adapt.