Sender: samuel david winer <•••@••.•••> Cyber Righters, I honestly believe that AT&T's decision to become an ISP was planned long ago. While I am not a lobbyist or a journalist, I have no doubt that they bought the Telecommunications Reform Act of 1996 and that monopolization of the Internet was part of the plan. Even if Reed Hundt and the FCC limit their market share here in America, it won't matter. They have such huge international business that they essentially will be the Internet even if they don't actually own the nodes. As I see it, there is no way that America Online, Compuserve, IQuest and others will be able to match the AT&T offer; So, they will have to find niche markets such as catering to graphic artists. I hate to see the return of monopolization, but we knew that was coming sooner or later. Dave ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Dave Winer "The fruits of all our labors have left 3157 Covenanter Drive us as we started. To grow without is not Bloomington, IN 47401 to grow within... ~=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=~=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=~-~=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=~=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=~ Posted by Andrew Oram - •••@••.••• - Moderator: CYBER-RIGHTS (CPSR) Cyber-Rights: http://www.cpsr.org/cpsr/nii/cyber-rights/ ftp://www.cpsr.org/cpsr/nii/cyber-rights/Library/ CyberJournal: (WWW or FTP) --> ftp://ftp.iol.ie/users/rkmoore Materials may be reposted in their _entirety_ for non-commercial use. ~=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=~=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=~-~=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=~=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=~