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"Open Access" and regulation of railroad freight rates.
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[quote user="Datafever"][quote user="futuremodal"] <P>No, I did not say technological innovation did not occur under the monopoly. I said that technological innovation (along with price and service offerings) that we are witnessing today would not have occured if Ma Bell had been allowed to maintain her monopoly. This all goes back to the basic economic tenet that <STRONG>competition spurs innovation</STRONG>.</P> <P>Agree or disagree? <BR>[/quote]<BR>You are correct. You did not say that technological innovation did not occur under the monopoly. I apologize. Perhaps you could provide an example of a technological innovation that you feel was the result of the breakup - something that would not have been invented had the monopoly been maintained.</P> <P>[/quote]</P> <P>Wireless. AT&T was heavily invested in land lines for the long distance revenues. So even though prefunctory wireless technologies were technically available, there was no incentive to push such technologies, thus wireless broadband and cell phones (and subsequent innovations based on real time market research) would not be as prevalent as they are today. Remember, it's one thing to have a neat invention sitting in the lab, it's quite another to have to adapt that invention to meet market demand.</P> <P>Former TRAINS columnist John Kneiling made mention many times of his observations that railroads were slow to adapt to new changes due to their heavy investments in older technologies. There was no intra-industry competition to force such changes for each company's survival.</P> <P>[quote]<BR></P> <P>[quote user="futuremodal"]<BR>Sure, Bell had an R&D department, but so what? Without fear of losing business to a competitor what motive existed to provide newer designs and service packages? Those guys were more like a university research department, not a business R&D sector. E.g. they were not pressed as if the company's survival was at stake. The motive seems to have been born of pet projects and the like, some of which may have aided in reducing costs to increase revenues, but for the most part just toys for bragging rights. There was no motive of growing a customer base to increase revenues. </P> <P>[/quote]<BR>Motive? I won't claim to know what motive was driving their innovations. It seems fairly clear that they didn't just sit back and take advantage of their monopolistic situation. They not only did cutting edge research, but they used that research for product development. As such, to say that their research was merely reactive would be, IMO, disingenuous. They weren't just reacting to customer complaints, but they were also introducing new technologies for the purpose of driving sales and to head off projected capacity problems.</P> <P>[/quote]</P> <P>I agree on the innovation to head off capacity problems, but disagree on the innovation to drive sales claim. AT&T was not invested in sales - you either needed a phone or you didn't, and if you did, you contacted them. They did not contact you.<BR></P> <P>[quote]</P> <P>[quote user="futuremodal"]<BR>Kind of like our railroad industry - unit trains and terminal consolidations (aka the "innovations" usually refered to) were implemented to reduce costs, not to increase customer satisfaction. Thus, monopolies produce "reactive innovations", while competitive players give us "proactive innovations".[/quote]<BR>Perhaps you could provide examples of what proactive technological innovations the trucking industry has come up with.</P> <P>[/quote]</P> <P>You mean trucking innovations that would not be around today had trucking been a monopoly?</P>
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