From: David Akin <david <at> davidakin.com> Subject: The Internet: Still Wide Open and Competitive?
http://intel.si.umich.edu/tprc/papers/2003/200/noam_TPRC2003.pdf]
Eli Noam, director of the Columbia Institute for Tele-Information, recently published: "The Internet: Still Wide Open and Competitive?"
The report's conclusion:
"We have found pronounced horizontal and vertical trends of concentration in the Internet sector. What are the implications? It would take a lengthy essay to fully analyze this question. But some implications can be anticipated:
-- Higher user prices, and a higher profitability of the major firms. -- A slowing of innovation and upgrade. -- Increased power of major Internet firms over:
(a) its governance, standards, and protocols
(b) access by content and applications providers
(c) hardware providers -- Cross-subsidies within major Internet firms to segments that are more competitive, distorting competition. -- The emergence of regulation to deal with such power.
If the Internet becomes dominated by a few firms, and given its centrality to commerce, culture, and politics, it is not likely to be left alone by regulation. Earlier debates over the opening of cable-provided Internet access are an early example. Others are likely to follow. Hence, the Internet might, in the long term, move from an entrepreneurial and libertarian model to one of market power and of regulation resembling or even exceeding that of other electronic media.
These findings and conclusions may not fit the Internet¹s self-image of being wide-open and competitive, but business strategies and public policies will benefit from a realistic rather than wishful assessment."
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