Morphing of Capitalism from Closed and Mercantilist in the US to Open and Collaborative Abroad
Thoughts on What these Changes Mean for Telecommunications and Innovation in the US and in the Global Economy Gordon Cook, Publisher The Cook Report On Internet Protocol Jan-Feb 2006 Issue Executive Summary / Essay Capitalism in the United States in the 21st century has not moved forward with the rest of the world. We are still embedded in the post World War II mindset of America as the great economic power at the peak of the industrial age. While many of our giant corporations are shrinking in size, in 2005 in American telecom there were two major exceptions to a trend in the technology area of downsizing driven by increasing commoditization as companies try to become more nimble in order to compete in a globalized economy. The two largest local phone companies swallowed the two largest American carriers. SBC merged with ATT and became the ânewâ ATT, and Verizon took over MCI.  Motivated they claimed by the goal of economies of scale, CEOs Whittacre and Seidenberg asserted that they could eliminate duplicative infrastructure and save money. What they did not explain was the cost of adding more debt to their core business and the expense of merging two huge and complex organizations with complex billing systems. They also ignored increasing enterprise customer anxiety as sources of redundant network infrastructure vanished. Some observers speculated that the real reasons for the mergers were the acquisition MCI and ATTs global IP backboneâs free traffic interconnection with the other major global players. In an increasingly all IP world, these resources had the potential to enable more cost-effective competition in the efforts of what some began to call Bell East and Bell Westâs efforts to provide television over their IP networks  efforts to compete with the MSO's cable modem service that will very likely fail. Continued at: http://www.cookreport.com/14.11.shtml ------ The essay above is the executive summary of the Cook Report's Jan-Feb 2006 issue: http://www.cookreport.com/14.11.shtml , which includes discussions on a number of issues concerning the overall telecommunications landscape, with special emphasis placed on the Internet. Recently, these issues have been stoked and catalyzed by a number of announcements by the recently merged megacarriers concerning their intentions to alter the basic economic precepts that underpin the Internet, and the philosophy that the Internet has imbued throughout most of free-thinking society. Also discussed is Bruce Kushnick's new book, "$200 Billion Broadband Scandal." You may recognize Bruce Kushnick's name from his association with the organization he heads, TeleTruth http://www.teletruth.org . For additional information about the Cook Report and to view a list of its present discussion participants in the ongoing discussion that is aptly titled "Infrastructure Held Hostage", click on the following link: http://www.cookreport.com/14.11.shtml -- All comments and critiques are welcome. Note: Dana Blankenhorn, who writes a column/blog in Corante, who happens to be a fellow Cook symposium member, has posted this essay in his blog space at: http://www.corante.com/mooreslore/archives/2006/01/21/railroaded.php . ------ Frank A. Coluccio DTI Consulting Inc. 212-587-8150 Office 347-526-6788 Mobile -- NYCwireless - http://www.nycwireless.net/ Un/Subscribe: http://lists.nycwireless.net/mailman/listinfo/nycwireless/ Archives: http://lists.nycwireless.net/pipermail/nycwireless/
