[asterisk-biz] Futures of the telecoms business.

[Matthew Rubenstein]

On Fri, 2008-02-01 at 02:42 -0500, Alex Balashov wrote:
> Matthew Rubenstein wrote:
> 
> > 	Lewis says telcos don't innovate and always accidentally caught up with
> > outside innovation, that telcos act like they've got a "god given right"
> > to make profits just because they've invested money in networks. That IP
> > "telephony" is really beyond telephony into "the future of
> > communications", that the IP convergence is where new money will come
> > from as voice and SMS profits decline. That there's huge new
> > opportunities that telcos aren't able to even think about tapping, or
> > care about until others show how. That voice is about to change after
> > 100 years, in combination with some other info, the huge oppportunity.
> 
> On the other side, there are a lot of CLECs, ITSPs and small independent 
> ISPs that seem to feel they have a "god given right" to make profits 
> despite _not_ having invested in networks, build-out, or any kind of 
> value-creating CAPEX other than resale infrastructure...
> 
> Don't get me wrong, I like this category of the industry, I'm 
> fundamentally on their side.  But it still bears pointing out.

	I think the difference is that these telcos have the means to *enforce*
their "god" given "right" to profits, because they physically control
the infrastructure that CLECs have the merely "1996 Telecom Act" give
*legal* right to exploit. Lots of people think they have made-up rights,
but the telcos are unique in the power of their prayers, and the tank
divisions to back them up.

	One sweeping illustration is the telcos current campaign to get
retroactive immunity for several years of serious violations of the
Constitution and FISA. Before that's even pulled off, they're also
announcing plans to police content for "piracy", an even more
fundamental violation of the laws not to parse content. Of course all of
that lawbreaking is to protect their god given right to profits, for
which they're now buying indulgences. Maybe that "god" is really the
other guy, who's more into contracts signed in blood.
-- 

(C) Matthew Rubenstein