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March 31, 2005
The Right Telecomm Policy
Posted by Dana Blankenhorn
Now that you’ve read my latest dismissive screed against the government, the question may have occurred to you.
What might a proper telecommunications policy consist of? (Very pretty flower, I know. Here's where I got it. The picture is called Simplicity.)
It’s really quite simple.
Click below and I'll tell you.
- Encourage competition. If competition ceases, shuffle the deck and get it going again.
- Recognize Moore’s Law. Costs are going down, not up. Capital costs must be repaid in 3 years, not 30. Most of the assets now in the ground are worthless.
- Work for the customer. The goal of policy must be to get the greatest value for all customers.
- It’s the Internet, stupid. Anything that’s not the Internet is going away. Don’t pretend otherwise.
- Keep the Internet stupid. Anything placed in the core slows things down for everyone.
I think that’s about it. Any time you want to make me FCC chairman I’m available. But I doubt the present Administration is going to call. (Or the one following, come to think of it.)
Comments (1)
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Dana Blankenhorn has been a business journalist for over 25 years and has covered the online world professionally since 1985. He founded the "Interactive Age Daily" for CMP Media, and has written for the Chicago Tribune, Advertising Age, and dozens of other publications over the years.
1. Jesse Kopelman on April 1, 2005 05:34 PM writes...
"Capital costs must be repaid in 3 years, not 30. Most of the assets now in the ground are worthless."
Not really true. Fiber in the ground, while maybe less so, is still valuable. It is still valuable thanks to WDM. Also, whle the cost of equipment is going down, not so the cost of putting it places. I agree that 30 years is too long, but I think 3 years is too short. I think the real number is 5 to 10 years. Also forget about breaking things into capital costs and expense -- it is very easy to play around with these. Just say the project must be able to break-even in X years.
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