On 3/21/2014 9:13 AM, Sholes, Joshua wrote:> How do you get around the
problem of natural monopolies, then?
My strongly held belief is that if the "natural" monopoly* becomes
oppressive somebody in their garage will find another way, and absent
regulation and force of arms available to the "natural" monopoly,
eliminate the monopoly situation and maybe the "natural" monopolist.
Or should
> we be moving to a world where, say, a dozen or more separate
companies are
> all running fiber or coax on the poles on my street in an effort to
get to
> my house?
Could be--we have two energy companies at our house. And two
communications companies have boxes on the back wall. Beyond the
piped-in water service, we have several competing beverage sources
(including for water) in service. The house across the street has, it
appears, at least three companies providing TV service (and Internet
service?). Three outfits provide waste disposal service in the
neighborhood, although I am not bright enough to see a competitor for
the sewage component. I wasn't bright enough to see the World Wide Web,
either.
Nobody uses poles.
> IMHO, the only way to get real competition on the last mile is to
have the
> actual fiber/wire infrastructure being owned by a neutral party that's
> required to pass anyone's traffic.
As soon as "required" is in the discussion, we have a monopoly, and a
monopoly has the power to abuse the situation.
Wire and glass are not the only media available, as if that mattered.
And we already have duplicates; what is the big deal?
OH! And the reason why one set of wires is idle, is that provider got
beat by the completion on the other set. (For this discussion, coaxial
cable is a "set of wires".)
*too old, failing memory and all, I'll have to go read up on "natural
monopoly"--I can not think of one that does not require regulation and
force of arms to exist.
--
Requiescas in pace o email Two identifying characteristics
of System Administrators:
Ex turpi causa non oritur actio Infallibility, and the ability to
learn from their mistakes.
(Adapted from Stephen Pinker)
