If there is a sector of the economy that should embrace network-based thinking, it is telecommunications. Surprisingly, the opposite is the case. The leading firms building telecommunications and Internet infrastructure increasingly emphasize consolidation, hierarchy, and exclusive control,...

Fifty years ago, two great technologies, the telecommunications network and the computer, embarked on a collision course. Experts at the time speculated about a “computer utility” that would profoundly influence both business and society. Not long after, the Federal Communications Commission...