Now lets look at the Free Internet Losers per Motley Fool.
Earthlink: Yup I have to agree here unless they change their business model in order to take advantage of the Free Internet. I can see them changing to a more GoDaddy ISP based system that provides web hosting, storage, and Akamai-like speed services (this will be a big deal with all this new blood fighting for bandwidth) for Hulu and YouTube. If they do nothing then they will be out of business in 5-10 years.
Comcast: I think they will be hurt by Free Internet for sure because not too many people will keep their wired broadband if they can get WiMax internet for free. You would also have to add Sprint and Clearwire to the potential dead-list as well since the government will be giving their service away for free.
GameStop: Now this is what prompted me to write this post. He talks about lower-priced ad sponsored games that are digitally distributed and I immediately thought of PopCap games. I can see this Free Internet being massive for puzzle games like Diner Dash.
The problem I see is that the vast majority of console games are large and usually take up quite a bit of space on a hard drive. So there will be a finite limit to the amount of games and add-ons one can put onto a consoles storage. I mean a Blue-Ray DVD holds 50 GBs so it would take just 3 games to fill up the largest PS3 Hard drive. This storage and graphics complexity scale will get even worse when the next generation of consoles come out.
I will agree with this part as soon as I see a major game company put a full-game sequel to a major franchise like FarCry, Call of Duty, or Halo only on digital distribution. I think quite a few retailers like Wal-Mart and Best Buy will have something to say about that. Also I have to say that add-ons or episodic content does not count as full-game sequels.
AT&T: They will be hurt on the wireless broadband front and I agree that even more landlines will be cut. But can Skype truly replace the cell phone? Will this Free Internet be faster and more reliable then AT&Ts 3G Network? And will this Free Internet be safer than the AT&T 3G network? If your phone gets a Trojan that steals your phone book or records your cell conversations or adware that makes your phone not work you will be sorry that that you gave up your AT&T service. There is a reason why Apple controls the App Store.
Blockbuster: I agree that Free Internet might spell the death of the brick and mortar Blockbuster. They will probably hold on for dear life as they transform into a digital download Netflix competitor that mostly sells and rents video games. I can see them reduce the size of their stores and maybe even start more web-kiosks where you can download movies to a DVD instead of full stores.
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