Question

In: Operations Management

Read the article: title:Hooking up Let's say you're an entrepreneur who has an idea to build...

Read the article:

title:Hooking up

Let's say you're an entrepreneur who has an idea to build a wireless fob that finds your keys even if you left them in Virginia or Barcelona. Or say you want to design a refrigerator that transmits a signal to Safeway, instructing it to deliver a gallon of milk every time you're running low. To enter the market you will have to turn to one of the four mobile phone carriers that today exercise an oligopoly over wireless device communications: Verizon Wireless, AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile.

Good luck. Get ready for an endless set of hurdles, including lengthy trials, revenue sharing and demands to cripple or modify features, without any guarantee of final approval. All that before your fob or fridge can transmit a tiny signal. In practice, many innovative devices never reach the market. The Big Four tend to approve only established partners whose devices fit their business plans, which is why we have yet to see all those wireless devices that were supposed to be in our future.

The firms already control what phones or devices reach Americans; 95% of cell phones are sold by the wireless carriers themselves. They strictly control phone design, blocking features that might threaten their revenue, like timers that keep track of how many minutes you've used each month. The carriers have also crippled or blocked alternative means of connecting wirelessly, like Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, because they want you to burn up minutes on their networks and charge extra fees.

The good news is that the federal government will soon have a chance to change all that and throw open America's airwaves to innovation and entrepreneurship. It will come in the form of an auction, within the next year, of the few remaining pieces of a precious national resource--licenses to the nation's wireless spectrum. This particular chunk of spectrum is becoming available because TV stations must stop using it to broadcast old-fashioned analog television by February 2009.

That's why this year's auction is so important. The Federal Communications Commission will soon deliver an initial set of rules to govern the spectrum auction. What's needed to spur innovation is a simple requirement: that any winner of the auction respect a rule that gives consumers the right to attach any safe device (meaning it does no harm) to the wireless network that uses that spectrum. It's called the Cellular Carterfone rule, after a 1968 decision by the FCC in a case brought by a company called Carter Electronics that wanted to attach a shortwave radio to AT&T 's network. That decision resulted in the creation of the standard phone jack. Applying the Carterfone rule to the next spectrum auction would ensure that our key fob designer need only look up standard technical specifications and then build and sell his device directly to the consumer. The tiny amounts of bandwidth the fob used would show up on the consumer's wireless bill.

The right to attach is a simple concept, and it has worked powerfully in other markets. For example, in the wired telephone world Carterfone rules are what made it possible to market answering machines, fax machines and the modems that sparked the Internet revolution.

Attachment rights can break open markets that might otherwise be controlled by dominant gatekeepers. Longshot companies like Ebay or YouTube might never have been born had they first needed the approval of a risk-averse company like AT&T. If you've invented a new toaster, you don't have to get approval from the electric company. Consumers decide how good your product is, not some gatekeeper.

But who has the political courage to push such ideas? To date, House Representatives Edward Markey (D--Mass.) and John Dingell (D--Mich.) have taken the lead in Congress by holding hearings on the issue. John McCain is the only presidential candidate so far to take a serious interest. Others should take notice. If America's reputation as the world's leading innovator is to be sustained, we need to get wireless policy right.

Tim Wu Professor at Columbia Law School and Author

Question: Write your position (3 to 4 paragraphs) about Who Controls the Internet based on Dr. Wu

Solutions

Expert Solution

The notion that any single person who has internet access manages it goes contrary to common knowledge. The web has a free content hosting convention, with relatively little governmental or regulatory interference. That is being sponsored today by an energetic group of people who are promoting a free and open forum. Recently, because of the endless collection of hoops it has to go through before it is 'licensed' for signal transmission, it is difficult for any entrepreneurial innovation which transmits signals to enter the market. That's the reason why there were many inventions that didn't hit the market. Such regulations are one of the invention 's drawbacks since although they are fit for different people for different uses, they are denied the opportunity to use the airwaves and provide the services for which they were created. Most telecommunications service providers are especially liable for this as any of these innovations could cripple the profits of the providers. The explanation they've disabled different ways of linking to Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, for example. These are still the key reason why we don't have the most portable apps that were supposed to be in our future due to airwave constraints. The government is responsible for reforming all of this and freeing up the airwaves to give way to numerous technologies and entrepreneurship opportunities. The Federal Communications Commission will also allow for a collection of guidelines regulating spectrum acts. This is to ensure that the airwaves are not only controlled by a certain group of people, and which signals should or should not be transmitted. In particular, this will allow TV stations to broadcast digitally in place of the old-fashioned analog way. The airwaves should be a open medium for all and everyone should be able to relay messages as long as they are of assistance to everyone.

PLEASE LIKE THIS ANSWER, IT REALLY HELPS ME A LOT. THANK YOU!!


Related Solutions

Can you be an entrepreneur? How do your characteristics match up? Read the article found in...
Can you be an entrepreneur? How do your characteristics match up? Read the article found in the following link. https://www.inc.com/sujan-patel/10-essential-characteristics-of-highly-successful-.html
Let's say you're the head of finance at Gaga Enterprises, a fashion company. Your company needs...
Let's say you're the head of finance at Gaga Enterprises, a fashion company. Your company needs $ 10 million to expand its production. What is the point of raising the money with the help of a financial institution or directly from the financial market?
Let's imagine the market for imported steel. Let's say in autarky our country has an equilibrium...
Let's imagine the market for imported steel. Let's say in autarky our country has an equilibrium price of 250 dollars per ton(Pa = 250), and the equilibrium quantity of 500 per ton(Qa = 500) Let's also say that the world price is currently 200 dollars per ton(Pw = 200). At this price quantity supplied would be 400 (Qs=400) and the quantity demand would be 600(Qd = 600) a)First lets assume that home is a large country. I want you to...
You are advising an entrepreneur who is considering investing in a project that involves setting up...
You are advising an entrepreneur who is considering investing in a project that involves setting up a coffee shop and selling it at the end of the year. The project requires an initial investment of £800,000 today (at date 0) and is expected to generate a single cash flow at the end of the year (at date 1). The size of the cash flow at date 1 depends on the state of the economy, and the entrepreneur expects the cash...
Read the article titled “Keeping up with Your Quants”. After reading this article, you'll understand the...
Read the article titled “Keeping up with Your Quants”. After reading this article, you'll understand the importance of "thinking quantitatively" in the workplace. Explain to us your thoughts on this article.   Discuss your initial thoughts about statistics, how you view the role of statistics in the business world, what 2-3 items you learned from this article, an example of a real-world scenario that could use a “Quant” person to help solve it, and what you hope to gain from this...
Taking the role of a financial planner, let's say you have a client (named Jane), who...
Taking the role of a financial planner, let's say you have a client (named Jane), who is a single mother of two in her late twenties. Due to attractive interest rates, Jane just bought her first house. She lives in Denton but drives to work each day in Frisco in a vehicle that she purchased, but is not fully paid for. What types of insurance does Jane need to have protection (mitigate risks) in all aspects of her life? Describe...
Taking the role of a financial planner, let's say you have a client (named Jane), who...
Taking the role of a financial planner, let's say you have a client (named Jane), who is a single mother of two in her late twenties. Due to attractive interest rates , Jane just bought her first house. She lives in Denton, but drives to work each day in Frisco in a vehicle that she purchased, but is not fully paid for. What types of insurance does Jane need to have protection (mitigate risks) in all aspects of her life...
Please read the below article then answer these questions. (a) Who has more monopoly power---WalMart or...
Please read the below article then answer these questions. (a) Who has more monopoly power---WalMart or the concessionaire who has acquired the franchise to sell beer, hot dogs, colas, candy, etc., at FedEx Field where the Washington Redskins play home football games? Explain. (b) Does the valuation of sports teams make sense to you? Why or why not? (c) Dc) Which market structure we have discussed do you feel best describes professional sports? Explain why. Article NFL commissioner Roger Goodell...
let's say the Pentagon wants to know what the cost of the War in Iraq has...
let's say the Pentagon wants to know what the cost of the War in Iraq has been. It then wants to compare that to the cost of the War in Vietnam. Do you think the U.S. government is more likely to use a costing system that is more closely aligned with Job Order Costing or one that is more closely aligned with Process Costing? Support your view.
Need to read the article from the link I provided and need to come up with...
Need to read the article from the link I provided and need to come up with a 2-3 page summary and critique and providing real life examples. https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/qkv5a3/apocalypse-neuro-why-our-brain-cant-process-the-planets-gravest-threats or https://www.islamicboard.com/general/134342488-apocalypse-neuro-brains-dont-process-gravest-threats-humanity.html
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT