Quote:
Originally Posted by Tom Albrecht
I've been amazed at how industry (particularly RCA) was able to brazenly manipulate the FCC to block competitors, etc. Not just in this case, but also the saga of Armstrong and FM comes to mind as well. Interesting to speculate on how things might have been different if a bit more fair play had been enforced.
|
Except that bribery and obstruction continues to the present day. (Campaign contributions and hiring former regulators for high-paying jobs in the private sector as rewards for beneficial rulings are nothing more than legalized bribery.)
Two years ago when a portion of the TV frequency spectrum was about to be auctioned for cellphone use, the Obama administration cited legitimate antitrust concerns about the bidders. The problem was that the (monopoly) giants AT&T and Verizon together control more than three-quarters of the spectrum, and have deeper pockets than T-Mobile and Sprint, and so would gobble up the new frequencies, allowing them to become even bigger and more powerful.
The proposal was to allow T-Mobile, Sprint, and new companies to acquire more frequencies as competition benefits the consumer. AT&T and Verizon allow T-Mobile and Sprint to remain in business, but weakened and not a threat, so as to avoid being broken up like AT&T was decades ago, and Standard Oil back in 1911. Nothing besides Standard Oil (or perhaps Amazon and Apple) comes close to describing the power of AT&T and Verizon, and it's why cellphone pricing is both expensive and static. Trying to increase competition, however, was decried as "socialism" because "qualified" bidders wouldn't be allowed to bid.
Technological revolutions are subject to manipulation, and the situation is not so different from the days when Sarnoff's RCA prevented the establishment of FM radio by (literally) using bribery and corruption to warp federal policy and destroy Armstrong and Farnsworth.
So it isn't accurate to say that these inventors were unskilled and incompetent in business. One might say they, being scientists and engineers, were honest and honorable, and had too much integrity to engage in bribery and corruption, and that ultimately doomed their businesses.