Published:
Cambridge, Mass: National Bureau of Economic Research, March 2004
Published in:NBER working paper series ; no. w10334
Extent:
1 Online-Ressource
Language:
English
DOI:
10.3386/w10334
Identifier:
Reproduction note:
Hardcopy version available to institutional subscribers
Origination:
Footnote:
Mode of access: World Wide Web
System requirements: Adobe [Acrobat] Reader required for PDF files
Description:
56K modems were introduced under two competing incompatible standards. We show the importance of competition between Internet Service Providers in the adoption process. We show that ISPs were less likely to adopt the technology that more competitors adopted. This result is particularly striking given that industry participants expected coordination on one standard or the other. We speculate about the role of ISP differentiation in preventing the market form achieving standardization until a government organization intervened