The railroads had a stranglehold on transportation in the US from the mid-19th century to the mid-20th. If you wanted to build a manufacturing plant, you had to build it in the northeast or midwest. If you built it elsewhere the rail tariffs would put you out of business, just at it would destroy a commodity farmer in the northeast or midwest who was trying to sell to the south or west. The tariffs were set by the carload, but the railways used some form of deep packet inspection to make sure you shipped what you said you were shipping.

If you look at the redistribution of industry after the rise of the interstate highway system, you can see just how effective the railroads were in controlling national development. Once the highways were able to compete, with tariffs set by weight, distance and time, one sees a whole different pattern of development.

Needless to say, the folks who own the tubes want to be regulated as railroads, while others want them to be regulated as highways. It’s an interesting battle between those who favor controlled development, in this case private companies, and those who favor free enterprise, in this case other private companies and various internet utopians.

We’ve seen how the wireless phone companies have stifled innovation for over a decade. Even little things, like visual voicemail, are considered major breakthroughs, not because they are technological tours de force – visual voicemail was prototyped in the 70s – but because someone managed to get a wireless phone company to give permission to implement it.

It is an important distinction. Thanks for highlighting it!

That’s an important distinction, IMO.