From: Mike Godwin <mnemonic@eff.org>
Date: Thu, 11 Nov 93 12:59:12 PST
To: pmetzger@lehman.com
Subject: Re: Should we oppose the
In-Reply-To: <9311111954.AA28183@snark.lehman.com>
Message-ID: <199311112058.AA07980@eff.org>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


 
Perry writes:

> Why did virtually all the railroads in the northern U.S. use the same
> rail gauge BEFORE regulation of the railroads?
 
Partly because there was no pre-existing railroad monopoly that was
blocking them from the market.

Of course, railroad interoperability is trivial, and can't easily be
altered to block entry. But it should be noted that "using the same rail
gauge" is only part of interoperability. I leave it to you to guess what
the other part is, and how a railroad monopoly can prevent entry of new
competition.

> Why do most of the commercial internet providers (except for the
> government subsidized ANS) agree to exchange packets with each other
> freely?
> 
> Why do open standards do better in the market than closed standards?
> 
> The answer is "its in their interest to cooperate, thats why."
 
Please explain, specifically, how it's in a local telco's interest to
cooperate with an upstart Electric Company telco provider.

> There was actually a really nice article in Forbes recently on game
> theory and competition vs. cooperation...

That's nice. But don't assume I'm not knowledgeable on these subjects.  


--Mike