[@] What is this all about [@]

These pages are here to promote different thinking about telecommunications.

Table of Contents

Where we are going

When I first started this little corner of cyberspace it was obvious that the telecommunications industry was on the brink of something big. Cellular phones were rapidly finding their way in to handbags and belt clips everywhere around me. The commercialization of the internet was seen as a future reality.

So here was I in the late 1990s, the demand for bandwidth seems to be relentless. The commercial use of the internet is shifting out of low gear. Third generation cell phones promise to complete the picture with mobile everything on demand. maybe.

Things looked pretty rosy for telecommunications providers. But it seemed to me that one competitor is still being kept out of the equation. That competitor is the end user. For a slightly dated explanation of how things could be different check out the Base and Rover Story to look into the future of telecommunications.. I hope..

Is that commodity or comm-oddity

This is a new section on this page and I don't pretend to know much about it. Over the next few lines I hope to prove to myself that this conception of bandwidth as commodity is the end users saviour or is something that will rapidly dissolve into the same.

Every time we discover a new commodity the problem of how it is to be traded and by who is well raised. Electricity is a recent case in point. It hasn't quite found its place up there beside pork bellies and frozen orange juice as a tradable commodity. Some people may be convinced but personally I doubt that it ever truly will. So what about bandwidth. Now the present major telecommunications players would be very happy for us all to behave like them and only pass on messages for a fee. The point that I would like to make here is that this attitude may not be in our best interest.

Just sticking with the pork belly analogy for a while. If we all produced our own bellies and even had a few to spare then trading would be a pretty rare event. So all we need is for some far sighted manufacturer to provide us with a node that exceed our needs. Now that item would be the commodity..

Whose soap box is this anyway?

You can visit Mike's real home page to find out more about Mike.

Your feedback is welcome

Of course any comments are welcome. Rude, unhelpful or unreadable comment will not be as welcome as the more positive kind. Commercial junk is most unwelcome. I will complain if you abuse.

So why not send me an email missive now.  Be sure to remove the 'xxx' robot spam protection.

(Top of this page). | Base and Rover Story

This web site is here to stimulate discussion as well as demand. Even though I'm only publishing non graphical pages at present. In the future there may be the odd unexpected snapshot, animated icon or background. Who knows. For the present I'll just waste bandwidth and connection time with plain boring text. :>