So, do you think it will take similar action to get broadband out to
everyone? Did the early telephone service providers similarly want to
only serve areas where they could maximize profits, thereby causing
government to mandate service for everyone? My guess is probably so.
I agree. It goes in technology driven cycles. I've been in telecom long
enough to have seen the Bell system divested, broken apart and recoalesce.
Where there were 7 RBOCs there are now 3, and all of them compete with
each other outside of their core territories.
All of them are selling off the less profitable elements of their
operations,
because there is no regulated mandate for universal service in the same
sense as the Bell System. Yes, prices are much lower in high density areas,
but at the cost of rural areas no longer even worth serving in a broadband
sense.
The margins aren't there. I CAN provide Betty with a gigabit connection,
but not at a price she'd accept. Not without a way of covering my costs
in terms of provisioning and maintenance. In a universal service model ,
as a still heavily regulated telecom, I CAN'T cream skim in terms of basic
service. But I CAN, and have to, in the broadband arena. Because after
deregulation, that's exactly what my competitors are doing.
The present regulatory environment militates against universal service,
or at least universal broadband service. The way it's headed now, at
least in my opinion, is in the opposite direction of the Kingsbury
Commitment.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingsbury_Commitment
That was intended to avoid nationalization, which happened anyway in
WWI. The FCC itself was set up the regulate Ma Bell, in 1934. Well,
the brakes got taken off that train in 1984. That was before the
technologies to actually impelement broadband became widespread and
available off
the shelf.
I was in favor of Genachowski as chairman of the FCC. But that is where
the regulation authority resides. So now we're at the start of a new cycle,
or at least we're in a position to rethink what amounts to a series of
sometimes bad decisions over more than a century.
Hope this helps or at least provides food for thought.
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