A big reason the Internet has taken off is that government has kept out of the way. Hands-off is always the best policy for a new technology. It lets innovators innovate and investors avoid the extra risks of special taxes and rules.
Consider aviation. Last month marked the 100th anniversary of the Wright Brothers’
But imagine if railroad regulators had burdened Wilbur and Orville and their successors with regulations requiring planes to have brake lights, whistles and a caboose and charging them a few cents for every mile of “track” traveled in the air. Aviation would have been set back decades.
Today, the Internet is now on the verge of a development likely to spread super-fast, inexpensive broadband connections to the majority of
The catalyst is known familiarly as VoIP. It enables packets of voice signals to travel over the Internet. Voice becomes an Internet application, like e-mail. Michael Powell, the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, calls VoIP “the most significant paradigm shift in the entire history of modern communications.”
VoIP has been around awhile, but, thanks to new investments, it has made a breakthrough. It started, says Wired magazine, “as a geek-out for corporate penny-pinchers. But now making phone calls using Voice over Internet Protocol is resonating with consumers
