Verizon and Vonage continue to duke it out in the courts over Verizon's telecommunications patent, and the legislative battle continues to brew between Comcast and Verizon over Verizon's requests for statewide cable franchise licenses. Both of these conflicts will have major consequences for consumers and businesses. Comcast versus Verizon
Its possible that Comcast's newest product (a 1.5Mbit synchronous T1 killer) is designed to step up the competition between the two. With this move, it is clear to me that Comcast is putting its telephone services in second position compared to their fledgling network services. Could be a slippery slope though, as I believe the court systems have usually put "information" network services in a different class than both television and telephone services, meaning Verizon's move into cable might be approved as an information service.
The defense that Comcast has against allowing Verizon into their market is that they have invested heavily into their network based upon the premise that they would have a monopoly in the markets they serve. Thus, the crux of the matter is the network, should it matter what is being sent over it? Verizon versus Vonage
While I'm not totally qualified to make this judgement, but it seems to me that if Verizon is able to launch a new cable business, it can't hold a monopoly over telephone services. Not that it does, there are different service providers for telephone service, but not many.
Vonage has no physical network infrastructure that I know of, so their service has to go over someone else's network. Verizon versus Municipalities
Beyond wired physical networks, there is the option of wireless allowing providing video, telephone, and internet services to consumers and businesses. Who will provide this type of service? So far, no telephone or cable company has stepped up to the opportunity on a public basis, but they do in some private establishments like Starbucks and airports.
Some municipalities are stepping up to the plate, much to the chagrin of both the telecom and cable companies, who are lobbying against such actions.
But for a minute, compare the "information superhighway" to our highway infrastructure. Imagine if you had to pay a toll for every time you travelled - would that make sense? I don't know the answer to that. Do you?
