Why did commercialization of the Internet develop
so well? This paper examines events in the Internet access market
as a window on this broad question. The study emphasizes four
themes. First, commercializing Internet access did not give rise
to many of the anticipated technical and operational challenges.
Entrepreneurs quickly learned that the Internet access business
was commercially feasible. Second, Internet access was malleable
as a technology and as an economic unit. Third, privatization
fostered attempts to adapt the technology in new uses, new locations,
new market settings, new applications, and in conjunction with
other lines of business. These went beyond what anyone would have
forecast by examining the uses for the technology prior to 1992.
Fourth, and not trivially, the National Science Foundation was
lucky in one specific sense. The Internet access industry commercialized
at a propitious moment, at the same time as the growth of an enormous
new technological opportunity, the World Wide Web. As it turned
out, the Web thrived under market-oriented, decentralized, and
independent decision making. The paper draws lessons for policies
governing the commercialization of other government-managed technologies
and for the Internet access market's moving forward.
Shane Greenstein, Kellogg
Graduate School of Management, Northwestern University
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