Well, they did specifically say it's not a cartel. Yet. I interpreted the article as an early warning to prevent them from becoming a cartel, as the author believes they have the capability to become one if they decide to.
> First, what is the function of a cartel? It's to coordinate supply to keep prices high.
No, it's to coordinate to keep profits high. Prices could fall, but less quickly than they would otherwise, and it could still be due to coordinated action. One example is if costs are falling quicker than prices, and prices drops are delayed or reduced. If consumers are hurt because they've altered the economics of the market to prevent competition, that would qualify for me.
> Do we really think that anything the content players have done so far would indicate any of them are trying to set pricing higher? Hardly.
Theoretically, they could make the market economics of new cables harder to justify, while keeping enhanced capability for themselves. Does affecting the world market to the degree that it would take a nation state to have enough money to change the status quo enough to allow competition in the data transit space count as anti-competitive? It may be that the term encompasses a lot more behavior when applied at that scale.
Do the companies in question have enough resources and power to affect the global market in that way? I have no idea. It sounds crazy, but it feels like there's more consolidation of power in these companies (with regard to online content) than other industries have had in the past, and with an industry that's as large and lucrative as this, that seems to make them somewhat unique. The dark horse here might end up being China. If there was a cartel, China would have the capability and motive to bust it eventually. Of course, if the markets China wanted to reach were politically denied from specialized lobbying, that could counter them...
What are you getting on that other link?!
Ssure they spy on all my stuff but look at that ping!
So would be more like 420 kilometres for 2ms.
https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2019-04-02/zucker...
They can, you know, contract it to an independent company. That's how most businesses in the world operate.
We're moving towards a world where Google can potentially control your computer (Android/Chromebook), your internet connection (Google Fiber), the backbone cables (article), your content (YouTube, etc) and your servers (to some extent). They are already entrenched in some of those markets.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regulatory_capture
Speaking of regulatory capture, I think that's really what happened and why Facebook has been able to get away with, actually, murder (e.g. Facebook's free internet had a big role in the murderous riots in Myanmar [1] and WhatsApp had a big role to play in mob lynchings [2], [3]). Not to forget the slap on the wrist they have gotten for what is basically child abuse in the "friendly fraud" case [4].
But not to worry, there is another dopamine hit coming up next minute to a mobile phone near you so you can pretend you never read this comment.
In my view, it is best not to let these tech giants anywhere near these kind of ventures.
[1] https://in.reuters.com/article/myanmar-rohingya-facebook/u-n...
[2] https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-45140158
[3] https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-46145986
[4] https://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2019/01/25/facebook-tu...
Large companies, due to their scale, are building capacity on new projects rather than buying into capacity on existing ones.
If new essential infrastructure is being built by new entrants with diversified providers, diverse routes, and improved technologies it seems like a sign of a healthy market.
Working for BT I found that there was a a whole other set of contracts and company procedures just for those employees who worked on the cable laying ships.
The process seems to be no different today, as the title and the content of the article suggest, rather indicates that it has become too 'collaborative'. Furthermore, owning sea-faring vessels in the grand project of laying cables, maintain and fix problems[1] is a drop in the ocean with relation to CapEx/OpEx, compared with multitude of other factors at play[2].
[1] https://www.wired.co.uk/article/subsea-internet-cable-ship-b...
[2] https://www.suboptic.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/ThA1.5.p...
> Don’t worry though — we are nowhere near such a scenario. Yet.