Sunday, December 04, 2005
Duh of the Day
From slashdot.org:
Study Finds Regulation Good For Telecom Customers
Posted by Zonk on Sunday December 04, @04:46AM
from the libertarians-turn-away dept.
jfruhlinger writes "Customers are always better off when government bureaucrats get out of the way and let the market work, right? Well, maybe not in all cases. As described at ITworld.com, a recent study compared the regulatory regimes and telecom environments in various European countries. The study concluded that in countries where regulators had more power to levy fines and punish monopolistic behavior, customers paid less and got more services." From the article: "The report, conducted by Jones Day and Strategy and Policy Consultants Network Ltd., showed that investment in telecommunications, which leads to better services for end users, is lower in countries where there is little competition." (http://slashdot.org/articles/05/12/04/0527242.shtml?tid=215&tid=95&tid=187)
At risk of oversimplifying: In the general course, without some sort of pressure to the contrary, a business would never sacrifice profits to make a better product. That's why GM is heading down the tubes to a significantly smaller company and Windows sucks. And the necessary pressure can, yes be governmental. Or it can be the market, such as in wireless, were the carriers are adding secondary services because there's so little profit in basic phones (generally given away at a loss of one sort or another) and basic service fees are kept low by competition.
So, duh.
Study Finds Regulation Good For Telecom Customers
Posted by Zonk on Sunday December 04, @04:46AM
from the libertarians-turn-away dept.
jfruhlinger writes "Customers are always better off when government bureaucrats get out of the way and let the market work, right? Well, maybe not in all cases. As described at ITworld.com, a recent study compared the regulatory regimes and telecom environments in various European countries. The study concluded that in countries where regulators had more power to levy fines and punish monopolistic behavior, customers paid less and got more services." From the article: "The report, conducted by Jones Day and Strategy and Policy Consultants Network Ltd., showed that investment in telecommunications, which leads to better services for end users, is lower in countries where there is little competition." (http://slashdot.org/articles/05/12/04/0527242.shtml?tid=215&tid=95&tid=187)
At risk of oversimplifying: In the general course, without some sort of pressure to the contrary, a business would never sacrifice profits to make a better product. That's why GM is heading down the tubes to a significantly smaller company and Windows sucks. And the necessary pressure can, yes be governmental. Or it can be the market, such as in wireless, were the carriers are adding secondary services because there's so little profit in basic phones (generally given away at a loss of one sort or another) and basic service fees are kept low by competition.
So, duh.
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