Reading Quiz 10.30.2008

1. CWN's are Community Wireless Networks. These potentially contribute to communities by allowing open, non proprietary wireless access to citizens for little or no cost to them at all. Being built and run by the government, maintenance fees and building fees would be covered with the taxes of the land. Students and community members will have more free and open access that will contribute to the overall sharing of communication and information. The "Digital Divide" between resource rich and resource poor areas can potentially be closed as information and wireless access become available to areas that were overlooked or not targeted by cable companies. Wireless networks are generally less expensive than the cable and wire networks we are familiar with now. That being said, CWN's will provide equal access to wireless and Internet technology which will contribute to the overall flow and sharing of information.

2. Major wireless network companies protect their monopoly's by creating proprietary networks and products that are not adaptable to other networks or technological products. According to Meinrath, "technological standards (often set by industry groups to ensure their own profitability rather than establishing the best option for the public) of these technologies" (220). Instead of caring for the best interest of others, industry providers usually care most about the profitability of the company. Company and industry mergers contribute to locking the industry. An example given in the book is the merger between Cingular and AT&T. Logically, one would think that prices would go down when something like this takes place, however when Cingular the new AT&T decides to pay to use Sprints infrastructure, it is just another way to limit and control service instead of expanding it. The plan is to confuse the people so that switching and searching for the better service and better options become more impossible and unable to do.
Bundling is also an issue in the competing technological industry. This is another way to lock out the competition and to mislead the public by selling inferior products to maintain control over competition (221). Intel sells a bundle like deal where you can get two chips and two different services for one price. However, less expensive options do exist and have proven in some cases to be more reliable than this bundled chip. Meinrath states that, "a Centrino notebook is a 'bundled' product. Like most bundled products, (for example, the add-on services that phone companies always try to sell their customers), this is a bum deal for the end user" (221).

3. Corporate consolidation and the early buying of technologies result in fewer companies controlling more of the wireless market shares because if larger companies are buying out all of the small technologies, than they are cornering the market and securing profitability for only a few people who can afford to act quickly. The example from the book features Behemoth wireless telecommunications companies investing in, "new technologies before they had even entered the mainstream consumer market, often paying an enormous premium to protect themselves from possible future competition (and passing these costs on to consumers)" (220). Companies lock the market and overcharge consumers because they can. With no competition, there are no other options for the consumer who is looking to save money. Companies like Microtell Communications have bought up all the assets of companies like MobileStar that have gone bankrupt for cheap, and, "the end result has been a steady march toward fewer and fewer companies controlling more and more of wireless market share" (220).