Internet service providers, proprietary content, and the battle for users' dollars

tors that underlie the trend of vertical disintegration. Foremost among these are the changes in the telecommunication industry. Declining hardware prices make it cheaper to compress, process and switch signals. These changes, combined with deregulation, have resulted in reduced telecommunication costs at the wholesale level. Further, increased standardization, decreased hardware cost, and use of common protocols have made it easy to bring these price reductions to the retail level. This makes the business of providing access much more competitive; and the providers, who have lower costs, gain market share. Telecommunication companies have a cost