Who's Right: Tom Hazlett in WSJ or Catherine Yang in BusinessWeek?

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Rob Frieden <rmf5 () psu edu>
Date: August 30, 2004 9:09:11 AM EDT
To: dave () farber net
Subject: Who's Right: Tom Hazlett in WSJ or Catherine Yang in 
BusinessWeek?

 Hello All:

        Last week two major publications (The Wall Street Journal and 
BusinessWeek) contained two articles examining reasons why the U.S. 
lags in broadband development. 

         Tom Hazlett stated that the incumbent carrier did NOT have to 
provide interconnection thereby forcing market entrants to generate 
facilities-based competition by building their own networks or 
accessing alternatives:

        "KT's new rivals Hanaro and Thrunet (among others) were denied 
the opportunity to use KT's network to deliver signals the "last mile."
        They scrambled for efficient alternatives. By using fiber-optic 
capacity leased from a power company, cable TV lines, and new 
transmission
         facilities built from scratch, competing networks emerged and 
broadband services took off."  See Wall Street Journal, Boradband 
Miracle,
        August 26, 2004; Page A12

        A BusinessWeek commentary stated just about the opposite:

        
        "What helped the rollout of broadband in Korea and Japan were 
not massive government subsidies, as some believe, but policies that 
allowed
        vigorous competition. In particular, those countries forced the 
incumbent phone companies to let startups use their networks at 
reasonable,
        government-set prices."  Catherine Yang, Moon Ihlwan and Hiroko 
Tashiro, Commentary: Behind In Broadband  New policies are needed to 
help the U.S. catch up, BusinessWeek, Sept 6, 2004.

        I would appreciate any insights on who's right.

        Regards, Rob Frieden






Pioneers Chair and Professor of Telecommunications
Penn State University
102 Carnegie Building, University Park, PA  16802
office: (814) 863-7996; fax (814) 863-8161
home: (814) 867-2545
Web page:       http://www.personal.psu.edu/faculty/r/m/rmf5/
Faculty profile: http://www.psu.edu/dept/comm/faculty/frieden.html

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