Without the government it would be a hodgepodge of walled gardens based on different protocols and standards with everyone trying to make a 'platform play' to l

Without the government it would be a hodgepodge of walled gardens based on different protocols and standards with everyone trying to make a 'platform play' to lock it down... exactly like what you see today with OSes. You'd also have complicated fee structures with every little service charged differently since telcos would want to charge a la carte for access to individual protocols and endpoints. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_gauge https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_gauge