The Best Networks are Dumb - Are Private Telecoms are Doomed?

" "Of all the winning networked applications of the last decade--e-mail, Web browsing, instant messaging, chat, music sharing, streaming audio, e-commerce, etc.--every one appeared on the Internet. Not one was invented by a telephone company. And not one needed any special mechanism [or intelligence] within the network itself..."

"With "the paradox of the best network," however, Isenberg dashes all these hopes. Although the best network is still a dumb optical network, a dumb network is "the hardest one to make money running." Optics will bankrupt you. The phone companies were right to resist. Not only can they not make money on an open network that does more to empower the users than the owners, but no one can."

http://www.forbes.com/home/2002/04/03/0403soapbox.html

The original web site:
http://www.netparadox.com/