Wireless: Don't Break What Isn't Broken

One reasonable bit of device in business is not to break what is not broken. Perhaps another good bit of advice is not to "fix" problems that already are being fixed. That advice arguably is not always followed.

In 1996, in order to induce more competition in the telecom business, the Congress passed the Telecommunications Act of 1996. The basic innovation was a historic change in rules on "who can be a local telephone company?"

Where in the past only one firm in a geographic area was allowed to be a local telco, the Telecom Act allowed any company to become a local telco. Of course, you now know what else was happening. Wireless was becoming a dominant way people use "voice" services.

The Internet was about to become the biggest, fastest-changing, most consequential new development in communications and media. So while regulators were moving to allow much more competition in landline voice, the market already was moving to wireless and Internet services and applications.

That's always a danger. Markets, end user demand and supply are moving so fast the danger always is that we attempt to fix older problems that already are being solved. There's little point in wasting effort doing those sorts of things. In recent days, it appears end user satisfaction with wireless is growing faster than other types of communications and media services. Maybe we shouldn't mess with that.