The Telecom Mess
from the worse-before-it-gets-better dept
The Economist takes their stab at explaining the current telecom mess, which they point out is really a much bigger bubble than the dot com bubble ever was. They also discuss what's likely to come next with the Baby Bells and former national monopolies in Europe buying up the pieces and creating new monopolies. They expect things to get worse before they get better - as companies that emerge from bankruptcy with little to no debt will put pressure on other firms that still have too much debt. There's also a brief discussion as to whether or not deregulation caused this mess - and the conclusion is that it didn't. While deregulation did create the environment where there were simply too many competitors taking bets that were way too big, it also has led to many new services and lower fees for consumers. The real problem was that investors bet too much money on each bet, and most of those bets have failed.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
