w recognize that network effects are exceedingly impor- tant in the development of the new broadband technologies and that those who deploy the platforms should have the property rights to ration access to their platforms. But will the major platform owners be successful in developing content or applications for their new networks? The major con- tenders for this role in the United States and elsewhere are the incumbent telephone companies and the cable television companies, neither of which have shown much imagination in these pursuits in recent years. The tele- phone companies have never been very entrepreneurial, nor do they have expertise in developing and marketing innovative consumer products. The cable companies were once in the vanguard of developing entertainment products for their distributive video services, but the recent stumbles of AOL-Time Warner (now "Time Warner") do not bode well for the suc- cessful integration of distribution and content in the new broadband world. The advocates of end-to-end Internet connectivity fear that the network operators will indeed begin to exploit the network effects available from deploying new services. As discussed in chapter 8, they would use regula- tion to require these network companies to use nonproprietary protocols and to provide open access to their networks. Such regulation would surely reduce the incentive to invest billions of dollars in new network facilities. But even if the platform owners were to retain the right to exploit these network effects, it is still not clear that they can do SO. The difference between the current broadband revolution and earlier transformations of consumer services or products industries is that the broadband distribution platforms are being built by large, still-regulated companies-or erstwhile regulated companies, in the case of cable televi- A Look Back and a Look Forward sion. These companies are not the obvious repositories of innovation and entrepreneurial energy found in the companies run by Henry Ford, David Sarnof