Thursday , April 3 2025
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The Dawn Of 5G: Will Wireless Kill the Broadband Star?

Summary:
In case you wanted to spend your evening reading me not knowing much about 5G… :) Technology knowledge gaps notwithstanding, I think there’s a lot to consider regarding new communication technologies from an economic standpoint- as you can probably tell from the transcript, the big thing that I find interesting is that existing broadband and, to some degree, wireless companies have higher opportunity costs of offering new technologies since they would at least partially be cannibalizing their existing business. I worry that this slows the pace of technological progress and provides incentives for anticompetitive behavior. This isn’t such a big deal for areas where the existing technology is “good enough,” but it matters more when it affects the incentives to get more households covered

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In case you wanted to spend your evening reading me not knowing much about 5G… :)

Technology knowledge gaps notwithstanding, I think there’s a lot to consider regarding new communication technologies from an economic standpoint- as you can probably tell from the transcript, the big thing that I find interesting is that existing broadband and, to some degree, wireless companies have higher opportunity costs of offering new technologies since they would at least partially be cannibalizing their existing business. I worry that this slows the pace of technological progress and provides incentives for anticompetitive behavior. This isn’t such a big deal for areas where the existing technology is “good enough,” but it matters more when it affects the incentives to get more households covered with broadband-level infrastructure and access.

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