The telcos NEVER made money from residential dialtone, and
it remains heavily regulated. We have no choice but to provide
it but it remains a cost of doing business.
Broadband is a different story but even in that arena franchise
agreements have to be negotiated with entities as small as
counties, cities, etc. just to gain the approval needed to begin
building a network.
It can be quite frustrating to deal with all of this 8-O.
What sort of regulations would you propose to implement a
universal broadband policy?
I'd always go for the carrot [incentives] first before considering the
stick [regulations or punishment].
Grants and tax breaks can be offered to companies to create and provide
network broadband services within defined parameters within a reasonably
limited amount of time. The stick would only be used on companies that
take the incentives without producing desired results. It would also be
used for price gouging, and that also needs to be defined considering
the difference between cost and charges for service, plus projected
subscription base.
Whether individual households use this service or not isn't important.
The benefits to nonusers from businesses, schools and communities being
more connected, resourceful and efficient will affect them positively
even if they don't use broadband themselves.
BTW, if telcos never made money from residential service, how did they
pay my dividends for so many years, including 2008? They make money from
residential service in metropolitan areas, but not in rural areas.
Balancing those services might make a net zero profit.
Business services are profitable. We just cancelled my dad's WATS line
last week now that his business is shut down. It was only $16/mo. My
cousin had a residential WATS line in the 70s that cost $500/mo, but she
could call anywhere in the world and talk as long as she wanted. More
businesses are using more services, at better rates, thus adding to the
telco bottom line. I'd like to see figures that indicate a loss for dial
tone service in metro areas.
*************************************************************************
** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy **
** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://www.cguys.org/ **
*************************************************************************
