One issue is cherry picking, if a fiber deployment will only serve the easiest or most lucrative customers, that tells existing providers they should switch to differential pricing where the less desirable customers have to pay more. Or just shut down when the fiber project comes to fruition, and those people have nothing.
I compare to an office park I used to serve with T1 lines to each building and DSLAMs in the telco closets (10+ years ago). There were 3 large, nice buildings, and 5 small, crappy buildings. The owners paid Comcast to build into the 3 desirable buildings, assuming I would continue to serve the 5 crappy ones. But then I would have been losing money, so I pulled the plug. It's also the feeling I get when people take a fantastic promo price from a big competitor, saying they will come to me when the promo ends. Why should you expect to do that? The other customers are paying my costs during that time, why should you get to waltz in at a later date and enjoy the benefits? Or worse, find out that I'm now out of business. Like the local hardware or grocery store that isn't there anymore because you went to the big box store. Hmmm, I need a wedding cake, what happened to that nice bakery I used to buy muffins at? -----Original Message----- From: Af [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of [email protected] Sent: Saturday, October 29, 2016 2:48 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Ammon City fiber Chuck, Thanks for taking the time to reply. > I am not wholly against muni fiber systems in concept. But harm to > existing service providers must be mitigated. A publicly funded fiber network is years in the making. It should not come as a surprise to any local business. WISPs are businesses and should adapt to the prevailing business environment. By the time the fiber network rolls out, you should have a fully paid of network yourself and be prepared to transition customers to the fiber network, if it makes sense. If you, as a WISP, are behind the curve by the time they light up the fiber network, then that is nobody's problem but yours. Also, what harm is there? Somebody drops a multimillion fiber network in your lap and says "have at it". All you have to do in return is pay the monthly rental fee for any customers you have on the network. How is that nothing but good fortune? > They must be allowed to connect for > free and be given some kind of pioneers preference such as no MRC > marginal costs for the first year or something like that. I'm not saying the fiber network owner shouldn't do their best to attract ISPs, but why should existing players get any preference compared to any other new entrant? Jared
