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Surprising Science

Data Communication Costs, & Myths

Moore's Law explains why the price of everything electronic keeps going down. Richard Bennett explains some exceptions. Don't expect bandwith prices to halve every 18 months.

Moore’s Law explains why the price of everything electronic keeps going down, so began Tom Evslin in a blog on costs which technology is driving down but government and private sector monopolies work hard to keep prices high anyway. Richard Bennett says, however, that the piece highlights two errors , one being the overstatement of the role of Moore’s Law in determining the cost of networks. Another being to claim that Skype is free. For instance, one-to-one video Skype is a “loss leader” that Skype has chosen to give away in order to encourage more people to use Skype’s paid services.


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