[IP] Who's Right: Tom Hazlett in WSJ or Catherine Yang in BusinessWeek?
Begin forwarded message:
From: Rob Frieden <rmf5@xxxxxxx>
Date: August 30, 2004 9:09:11 AM EDT
To: dave@xxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Who's Right: Tom Hazlett in WSJ or Catherine Yang in
BusinessWeek?
Hello All:
Last week two major publications (The Wall Street Journal and
BusinessWeek) contained two articles examining reasons why the U.S.
lags in broadband development.
Tom Hazlett stated that the incumbent carrier did NOT have to
provide interconnection thereby forcing market entrants to generate
facilities-based competition by building their own networks or
accessing alternatives:
"KT's new rivals Hanaro and Thrunet (among others) were denied
the opportunity to use KT's network to deliver signals the "last mile."
They scrambled for efficient alternatives. By using fiber-optic
capacity leased from a power company, cable TV lines, and new
transmission
facilities built from scratch, competing networks emerged and
broadband services took off." See Wall Street Journal, Boradband
Miracle,
August 26, 2004; Page A12
A BusinessWeek commentary stated just about the opposite:
"What helped the rollout of broadband in Korea and Japan were
not massive government subsidies, as some believe, but policies that
allowed
vigorous competition. In particular, those countries forced the
incumbent phone companies to let startups use their networks at
reasonable,
government-set prices." Catherine Yang, Moon Ihlwan and Hiroko
Tashiro, Commentary: Behind In Broadband New policies are needed to
help the U.S. catch up, BusinessWeek, Sept 6, 2004.
I would appreciate any insights on who's right.
Regards, Rob Frieden
Pioneers Chair and Professor of Telecommunications
Penn State University
102 Carnegie Building, University Park, PA 16802
office: (814) 863-7996; fax (814) 863-8161
home: (814) 867-2545
Web page: http://www.personal.psu.edu/faculty/r/m/rmf5/
Faculty profile: http://www.psu.edu/dept/comm/faculty/frieden.html
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