time to bury nethead versus bellhead polemics

Fri Aug 27 15:39:47 UTC 2004

Hope that more than a few here will be interested in some of my 
recent conclusions - from the November issue that I just published.

Why a Layered Model is the Only  Reasonable Way to Evaluate Telecom

Lines of Business Have Blurred - Making the Regulatory Concept of 
Vertical Silos Archaic

Time Has Come to Bury All "Bellhead versus Nethead" Polemics

  Introduction

Since the bubble burst in late 2000 sending the Internet and the rest 
of telecom into a tailspin, it has been rather obvious that former 
stability and predictability of the economics of telecommunications 
has been shattered. The last several issues of The COOK Report have 
explored the fallout of those shattered economics in great detail.

  In this introduction The COOK Report notes that telecom economics is 
likely to stay broken, first, due to oversupply, and second due to 
lack of differentiation on anything other than price across too many 
competitors in services and service providers. Third: because of very 
loosely bonded brand loyalty. A final and very serious additional 
problem is regulatory instability as the FCC struggles with 
historical precedent in its interpretation of legislation. It finds 
itself whip-sawed between its "vertical silo" model derived from the 
technology it regulates, and the increasingly advocated "horizontal 
network layer view" of the IP enabled services, including but not 
limited to VoIP, Video over IP, and so on.

  As long-term, and, perhaps, not so long term, readers of The COOK 
Report are aware, this publication has not only long trumpeted the 
"bellhead vs. nethead" divide, but taken a partisan position where 
anything seen to be "bell-headed" was regarded as bad while 
"netheaded" was seen as the 'nirvana' to which the Internet would 
guide telecommunications.

= = ==
For the remainder of my Bury  "Bellhead versus Nethead" Polemics 
article please see

  http://cookreport.com/13.08.shtml
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polemics don't
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