Todd Walton wrote:
On 10/19/06, Tom Perrine <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
I presently support laws that force phone companies to allow
competitors access to their lines. I'd prefer that the government
devise a new regulatory scheme that allowed anyone to run phone lines,
in which case they wouldn't need to force the owners to allow access
to competitors. I believe that in the future phone lines will be a
thing of the past, as more and varied ways of transmitting information
become available. This is the *real* solution to the specter of net
neutrality issues.
Running of phone lines is a local issue. The Bells have been forced to
lease their lines at good rates, because they were granted a monopoly
for so long. This monopoly was to speed the deployment of the new
technology. Now competition is allowed. In the Kansas City area, we have
a company, Everest (owned by Aquila), that has run all their own lines
all the way to the house. Since they aren't leasing the lines, they get
to decide how long is acceptable for them to recoup the infrastructure
costs. They are competing well with Time Warner for phone, cable, and
Internet. They for a long time were the only division of Aquila that was
making money. It can be done, but there is a huge cost to installing
that infrastructure. Eventually we will have antennas on the house that
will allow us to shop around for services from anyone in the area.
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