In the 90's, anyone with a backhoe followed the Williams Pipeline model and ran dark fiber in every ditch that was dug, leading to a plethora of cheap bandwidth and a multitude of services wrapped around it. The investors understood that "dark fiber" means unlimited bandwidth, as Moore's law provided a steady stream of technology-driven bandwidth upgrades by replacing the equipment at each end of the connection over time.
The cost per megabit of bandwidth has plummeted as a result, sparking open use and limitless growth of the internet.
So why is it, that cellular technology, using the same infrastructure, is headed in the opposite direction? Who didn't get the memo?
Even as far back as 10 years ago, data plans were expensive, complicated, and capped. This has arguably hampered smartphone adoption until just recently, setting us back 10 years on the mobile internet progress front.
Cellular providers, please understand: YOU ARE ALL ABOUT 18 MONTHS FROM BEING REPLACED BY THE NEXT WIFI STANDARD.
With this dollars-and-quarters business model (much more expensive than nickel-and-dime), your customers will ONLY put up with you as long as they need you, and not one billing cycle longer.
As soon as handsets evolve beyond cellular networks, we can start to benefit (again) from all of that cheap bandwidth -- just as home broadband drove adoption of desktop internet 10 years ago.
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