Implications of Local Loop Technology for Future Industry Structure

This chapter explores the impact of the Internet on the deployment of technology for advanced residential network access. The shape of the future is certainly not clear, but certain considerations provide a basis for conjecture: the high cost of new wireline facilities, the emerging ability to provide higher quality Internet service over the existing wireline facilities of the incumbent local exchange carriers (LECs) and cable providers, the rapidly changing nature of the Internet and its service requirements, and the open nature of the Internet’s interfaces, which tends to inhibit vertical integration of the Internet and the higher level services provided over it.