Greenstein.

• Position: Economist - Brief Article

Why did commercialization of the Internet go so well? Greenstein examines events in the Internet access market and emphasizes three 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, privatization fostered attempts to adapt the technology to new uses, locations, market settings, and applications, and to extend it to other lines of business. This went well beyond...