Chuck wrote: > Why does it have to be open? It does not have to be, but if one party offers dark fiber rental and the other does not, then they are not competing directly on all levels. Open access also opens up the market to a different level of competition, which may or may not be a goal.
> If I string up a bunch of fiber and connect a > bunch of homes and businesses, how fair is it for the county to use my > property tax revenue to do the same and put the hurt on me? Fair to who? Fair to those that would have been left without service, because you could not or would not expand to all areas? Fair to those who would not be able to get the same service as their neighbors, if the county had left your service area out of their footprint? Paying property tax or running a business does not exempt you from competition, not even from the county. There are very few things you are entitled to as a business and fairness is not one of them. Strictly legally speaking, even if the county overbuilds you, it hasn't left you worse off. You still have your network, they just have theirs. Your profit margins might not be the same, but there is no felony interference with a business model on the books. That being said, existing last mile fiber networks are rarely, if ever, overbuilt by the county. If they are, it's usually due to one of two things: - the existing network does not cover the whole county - the existing network is not fulfilling community needs There are of course multiple ways in which an overbuild can be avoided. The county can buy the existing network, it can be further built out with county financing, the county can buy wholesale access to the network, etc. Sometimes an agreement just cannot be reached. More than one public network has been built because the incumbent did not want to open up the network, offer (better) services or build out the existing network, even on the county's dime. > >We don't pay buggy-and-whip tax on our cars either. > Actually you do, federal excise tax on tires... Ok, so the federal excise tax on tires was instigated originally to pay for World War I. It's been repealed and reinstated a bunch of times after that to pay for a variety of things. Wars, interstates, more wars. Nowadays it's a way to collect for higherwear-and-tear on highways by heavy vehicles. How is this a buggy-and-whip tax? Jared
