[opendtv] Re: Bundling and competition
- From: Craig Birkmaier <craig@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 10 Sep 2013 10:14:54 -0400
On Sep 9, 2013, at 9:35 PM, Cliff Benham <flyback1@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Hmm. If I'm remembering correctly, television used to BE completely wireless.
> Oh, uh, until cable came along.
Perhaps "natural monopolies" logically lead to natural technology shifts like
the "Negroponte switch."
From Wikipedia:
In the 1980s Professor Nicholas Negroponte of the Media Lab at MIT originated
the meme, that came to be known as the "Negroponte Switch". Put simply he
suggested that due to accidents of engineering history we had ended with static
devices - such as televisions receiving their content via signals travelling
over the airways while devices which should have been mobile and personal -
such as telephones were receiving their content over static cables. It was his
idea that a better use of available communication resource would result if the
information (such as phone calls) going through the cables was to go through
the air and that going through the air (such as TV programmes) was to be
delivered via cables. Negroponte called this "trading places," but his
co-presenter (George Gilder), at an event organised by Northern Telecom called
it the "Negroponte Switch" and that name stuck.
Regards
Craig
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