Several years ago Cisco Systems changed its strategy. The company then best-known for building corporate networks would begin serving phone companies.
Phone companies deliver big orders. Big profitable orders. They put you through hell first, but once you’re in, you’re in.
It sounded very attractive. But any company which ties its future to
the imagination of a phone company is, in the end, going to be
disappointed. Because there is nothing there.
AT&T, Verizon, and foreign firms have spent this decade
consolidating. They make big promises but do nothing to fulfill them.
This seems to be built into their DNA.
As a result Internet service speeds in most of the world have not sped
up, despite the fact that fiber cables run more data than ever (for the
same cost), despite the fact that WiFi wireless runs more data than
ever (for the same cost), despite innovations in speeding data through
copper and cable, and in switching it.
Today’s basic service offering around the world remains 1.5 Mbps down,
384 Kbps up, and that’s really a maximum — your speeds are usually
much slower.
When you depend on a Luddite for innovation you get what you deserve.
What Cisco should have been doing, what it should be doing now, is
creating competition to make the phone companies obsolete.
By getting in bed with Lud, Cisco has buried itself. I wonder if they will figure this out in time and do anything about it?
