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Hey Telcos and Cables - Come on Over to the Dark Side

Muni nets can work to incumbents' advantage, Yankee advises While this analyst from the venerable Yankee Group has suggested that incumbent telcos and cables could benefit by reconsidering their opposition to municipal broadband networks (the wired kind - fiber), this provocative suggestion stops there, adding that they should still oppose wireless networks - Wi Fi and WiMAX networks.

While I have next to no direct experience with pantyhose, I do understand that this is how a run starts - a snag creates a small hole and begins the unravelling process - and the ultimate demise is inevitable - so we have the multi-million dollar pantyhose industry. And so it goes with the incumbents' opposition to municipal networks - while I agree with the premise that there is more to be gained by promoting municipal broadband networks than opposing them, especially iin areas that are uneconomic for incumbents to get to in the near term (duhh), I think that to discriminate between wired and wireless technologies is pointless. The fact is that promoting evolution over revolution merely slows down the inevitable changes that will occur.

I would argue that incumbent telecoms and cables would do better to get out in front of this parade and demonstrate leadership by extending broadband access throughout the land, with whatever technology makes sense. By doing so, they could take advantage of a great national need and prove why they deserve to remain in their leadership positions, and forestall the disruption that would introduce new competitors into "their" markets. By continuing to oppose the progress that such networks represent, incumbents demonstrate that they are more interested in holding on to their privileged positions at any cost, even to the detriment of the communities they serve, than they are in serving the nation that crafted the regulatory climate that gave them monopoly positions and paid for their infrastructures.

Such a strategy opens the door for alternate providers to service the needs left unmet by incumbents - check out The Innovator's Dilemma by Clayton Christensen in my Unwired Library on this site. I reference this book so often, so I apologize for yet one more reference. Still, to understand the risk that incumbents face, one has only to recall the early 1970s, when Detroit automakers failed to provide the public with an affordable, fuel-efficient car and Toyota stepped in to meet the need, with a rattletrap that did the job for much less than what Detroit would provide. And in so doing, Detroit opened the door for the dominance of Toyota (and Lexus) in today's automobile market.

As the saying goes, those who fail to learn from history are condemned to repeat it. And despite the advantages of embracing change and taking a leadership role when it is thrust upon them, I wonder if it's in the Incument DNA to do so, to foster any municipal broadband, wired or wireless.

Time will tell. It may take something extraordinary...like say, the utter destruction of a network and the need for a rapid recovery ... that time may be upon us in the wake of the destruction that Hurricane Katrina wrought - watch Bell South for something innovative in the near term...

Posted on October 06, 2005 at 09:14 PM

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