A friend and I were chatting today about how carriers still think of themselves are controlling pipes to deliver content. It just struck me that the carriers are acting a lot like the railroads did when the Interstate System was being built. They clamped down on their monopoly seeing the Interstate being a threat, instead of embracing the possibilities to expand on their base.
What the Interstate System did was expand the range of the individual to give freedom to go places on a whim. So does the Internet. As the pipes become commodities and freely available it will be interesting to see how many carriers die. It's already starting. For $99 Sprint is offering unlimited data and voice no matter where you may be.
So to survive we must embrace and adapt. Look at the new opportunities and get into those. Imagine the implications of Distributed Cloud Computing. If the carriers move on, they will create whole new opportunities, if not, they'll become quaint artifacts like riding the Orient Express.
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