tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17500930.post7429958236495862639..comments2024-03-20T22:57:03.923+00:00Comments on Dean Bubley's Disruptive Wireless: Thoughts on Jeremy Corbyn's "Digital Democracy Manifesto" launchDean Bubleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05719150957239368264noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17500930.post-82339340321988478352016-08-31T14:56:14.967+01:002016-08-31T14:56:14.967+01:00Here's the problem with spending on a backbone...Here's the problem with spending on a backbone. That's where competition can actually occur. Competition doesn't happen at the edge.<br /><br />Network effects dictate that value is concentrated at the core and top of the informational stack, while costs are mostly distributed to the edge and bottom of the stack.InfoStackhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07551031808515532198noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17500930.post-13503959000310389662016-08-31T06:48:25.511+01:002016-08-31T06:48:25.511+01:00Remind me again how much Gordon Brown extracted fr...Remind me again how much Gordon Brown extracted from the Telco industry in the early 2000s? Just shy of £25 billion? Oh, the irony...<br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17500930.post-49534123673207094132016-08-31T05:12:24.600+01:002016-08-31T05:12:24.600+01:00Re Uber. There is a bit of a problem with its busi...Re Uber. There is a bit of a problem with its business model, in that it is a natural monolpoly/oligopoly. Have you got any ridesharing apps on your phone other than Uber and Addison Lee?<br /><br />As we all know, in this situation a company can extract monopoly prices. Consumers just haven't noticed this yet as previously they were getting ripped off as a small motivated section of society (Black Cab Drivers) successfully lobbied the government for barriers to entry to their business - onerous 3 year accreditation tests a.k.a "The Knowledge".<br /><br />So the Corbynistas aren't wrong in suggesting that there is something rotten with Uber, but their prescription is silly. If the U.K. creates a nationalized Uber app, the government will probably quickly give in to the lobbying of the small motivated group of professional taxi drivers, and we'll be back to people having to sit The Knowledge before driving for the Uber app in fairly short order. <br /><br />Perhaps a better solution would be legislated so that any private company can build a ridesharing/tasksharing app, but with a mandate that tasks/jobs posted on one app by a user have to be passed through to all the other ridesharing apps. This would hopefully deal with the "apps are natural monopolies" problem, while preventing the taxi drivers of London from wringing concessions out of the government in close election years.Jim Baconnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17500930.post-20748431767736895812016-08-31T04:49:40.789+01:002016-08-31T04:49:40.789+01:00An example of a national fibre network done correc...An example of a national fibre network done correctly is New Zealand's Ultra Fast Broadband initiative:<br /><br />https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultra-Fast_Broadband<br /><br />The key difference between Australia's NBN and NZ's UFB is that New Zealand forced its incumbent ex state telco to split into a wholesale lines company and separate retail company. I don't believe that the UK has done this with BT yet.<br /><br />Also a possible solution to the rural Scottish broadband problem:<br /><br />http://spectrum.ieee.org/telecom/internet/malawi-and-south-africa-pioneer-unused-tv-frequencies-for-rural-broadbandJim Baconnoreply@blogger.com