The Failure Of Broadband

from the my-favorite-topic dept

I've obviously talked about this topic quite a bit, due to my own experiences, but Business 2.0 has an interesting article looking at the failures of broadband. The beginning of the article tries (unwisely) to tie it into the recent bankruptcy of Global Crossing, but quickly gets beyond all that. They point out the real problem with broadband: there simply isn't a compelling application out there that makes it worth it for many consumers to spend more than double their dial-up fees. The article then points out that Napster was a compelling application that could have driven broadband adoption, and jumpstarted many other parts of the economy, but the music industry stopped that one dead in its tracks. The article makes the interesting argument that the companies that are trying to get the government to stimulate broadband growth should be pushing for copyright reform that would allow things like Napster to thrive. It's an idea worth thinking about.
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  1. identicon
    Pat, 5 Feb 2002 @ 2:26am

    No Subject Given

    Napster was a 'compelling' application, but FastTrack and gnutella are now quite a bit bigger than Napster was in its heyday - plus, they make movies, software, and books all available, too. Shouldn't that be even more compelling? Agree on the relaxation of copyright, but there's so much stuff out there to download that to blame the lack of broadband adoption on the death of Napster is silly... shouldn't they simply be looking at the price?

    link to this | view in thread ]

  2. identicon
    The Gonzo, 5 Feb 2002 @ 10:21am

    Re: No Subject Given

    that's kind of the whole point though...not enough people feel like that gnutella, et. al. are worth the $50 bucks. so, the people that stand to benefit from broadband (hardware makers and network providers) are lobbying to get the fed's to subsidise the cost of delivering the service, thereby allowing a lower price to the customer...

    link to this | view in thread ]


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