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From: Lawrence D'Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid>
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Subject: Re: My Dinner With Marc Andreessen
Date: Sat, 6 Jul 2024 01:34:30 -0000 (UTC)
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On Fri, 05 Jul 2024 10:56:20 +0200, Andreas Eder wrote:

> Free markets ten ro become oligopols, if not regulated.

Case in point: the introduction of mobile phones. The Europeans decided 
that there had to be a common standard, rather than having every carrier 
build its own proprietary network. So they came up with a Government-
mandated spec called “GSM”. Yes, it was a complex. bureaucratic spec, but 
it was a proper spec, with compliance tests and everything. So you had 
proper interoperability. The only thing that tied you to a particular 
carrier was that you got your SIM card from them. So switching carriers 
was as easy as getting a new SIM card.

Meanwhile, in the USA, the prevailing ideology was “let the market 
decide”. So each carrier created its own proprietary network, and its 
customers were locked into that network.

And so you had the interesting situation where, in Europe, you could buy 
your phone first, then decide which carrier to sign up to, whereas in the 
USA, you first chose your carrier, and then you had to buy your phone from 
them.

And not only was the European system successful in Europe, it became 
popular in most of the rest of the world, too. So you had the situation, 
in the early days of Android, where a new model from Samsung or HTC or 
whomever would be available across the entire GSM-using world within a 
matter of days, while customers in the US had to wait another couple of 
weeks, for carrier-specific versions to come out for their particular 
carriers.