Changing Economic Nature of Network Resources Due to Network Convergence

The advanced technologies of the converged network are going to change the economic nature of the telecommunication network, especially the Internet. The Internet of today is an example of common resources and is suffering the tragedy of commons problem, i.e., it is overused. However, as the new network technologies of the converged network progress, the Internet will change from a common resource to a private resource and the tragedy of commons problem is expected to disappear. This paper discusses how network convergence transforms the economic nature of the Internet and raises new economic issues that we are going to face soon in the era of the broadband converged network (BcN).