Unlimited data: A universal human right, or fruit on the back of a wagon?
Karl Marx, the evil genius who invented Communism, centered most of his work around the idea that the folks who own the ‘means of production’ - the raw materials and the infrastructure around it - tend to do better in life than those who do not. But, isn’t that a somewhat simple observation? An obvious way to say that the most aggressive monkey, and probably the one with the biggest fists, gets the most bananas, tends to be popular with the lady monkeys and has plenty of offspring, many of whom are just like him. But enough of Charles, let's get back our friend Karl.
The obvious difference is that in 2014, the humans in Berlin weren’t beholden to a dominant human trying to amass unimpeachable levels of power (or bananas). They were beholden to a German mobile market famously restrictive in terms of data rationing and allowance. Data caps were simply considered good solid business. Even more so when you consider that T-Mobile profited from media partner streaming apps which gained enormous popularity with customers as the streamed data didn’t count towards monthly data quotas. A state monopoly run amok. Thankfully the first unlimited plans arrived in early 2018 for €79.95 per month when T-Mobile fell foul of net neutrality regulations.
But how on God’s green earth were these soulless entities allowed to get away with it all? As I mentioned earlier, the deception centers around perspective. In this case, the perspective that data is stuff to be sold to the customer in portions. Doled out in an arbitrary manner, prescribed according to financial means.
It’s no coincidence that music streaming is there at the scene of the crime. Downloading apps such as Napster, Kazoo, Limewire and eventually more mature file sharing apps using torrents became an increasing threat to traditional (now considered legacy) music retail. Music streaming apps at that time represented a last glimmer of hope for a music industry gasping its last panicked breath. The fact that T-Mobile in Germany and many other European countries considered data capping as a means to stem the flow and push consumers to media streaming platforms with the potential for modest monetization.
But, how were many hundreds of consumers around the world so easily duped? And why?
I have a simple analogy that surmises the slight of hand that permeated entire telecommunications industries around the globe at that time. Imagine the level of expense it takes to create the internet, or perhaps just one corner of it. The initial investment in Germany alone to move beyond 56K dial-up, involved billions of Euros.
Imagine, instead of a broadband network, the investors built a river. Imagine T-Mobile owned the river and that it was the only place from which you could purchase water. T-Mobile charges $20 a bucket. A fair price we are told, considering the cost of building and maintaining the river.
However, now that we have a river, we decide that instead of purchasing water, we go straight to the source and purchase time accessing the river.
“Why not simply charge me for access to the river? I may not need a whole bucket of water, then again I may need many thousands. The reality is that it doesn’t really matter. The river is wide. The river is deep. The river is fast. It exists and I require access to it”
“But what if too many people access the river and the water starts to dry up?”
“We’ll build more rivers to ensure everybody has a sufficient and plentiful water supply.”
From the railroads to electricity grids, telecommunications networks to satellite communications, the ever evolving world around us is built by the desire to take a moderate risk by placing a bet so large it cannot possibly fail. Backed by a nation’s tax dollars, government bonds, private equity and, as is the case in our current 2026 phase in human expansion, hedge funds.
These are private equity firms that many now refer to as super-hedge funds. The great news from an investors perspective is that the development of hyperscale data centers is currently almost entirely risk free as they are largely seen not only as a prerequisite required for the future of humanity, but as an essential utility.