Michael Shields blog XML

Internet construction is complete

According to a new ITU study, the major barrier to Internet expansion worldwide is not, at this point, getting it built out. “Our research… suggests that affordability and education are equally important factors.”

This is a significant finding. It says that the bulk of people who would and could benefit from Internet access, if it were available, already have access. In other words, future growth of demand will come from the long slow work of making the world wealthier and better educated, from cannibalization of existing communication services like voice, fax, and physical delivery, and from the unglamorous work of making what we have now cheaper so that people will buy more of it.

If you’ve been working in the industry, know now, if you didn’t before, that you’re no longer changing the world through any sort of Disruptive Technology. It’s done; the world is already made over.

posted at: 2003-12-01 06:00 UTC | permanent link to this entry | comment