On Sun, 12 Jun 2005, Dana Spiegel wrote: > A bill just introduced in Congress would take away the right of cities > and towns across the country to provide citizens with universal, > low-cost Internet access. I don't mind that bill - unregulated government-owned monopolies are evil.
Of course, unregulated non-government-owned monopolies are exactly just as evil. The solution is to *regulate* monopolies. Force open access. If the government entity is in business of providing internet access, it should be covered by the same open access requirements as cable and phone companies. > Giant cable and telephone companies don�t want any competition -- which > might actually force them to offer lower prices, higher speeds and > service to rural and urban areas. Modal competition (i.e. between govco and cableco) is not necessarily what we really need anyway. Forcing monopolies to share access to the 'last mile' is. Government or non-government. > You can stop this outrageous bill. Send a message to your representative > now at http://www.freepress.net/action/sessionsbill . I don't find it so outrageous. I find outrageous that Congress keeps taking the teeth out of Telecom Act of 96, which was supposed to deregulate telecommunications industry and mandate unbundling. > P.P.S. Want to get more involved in bringing Community Internet to your > hometown? Join the Free Press Action Squad at http:// > www.freepress.net/action/squad/signup.php . Community Internet without open access = "by the clueless, for the clueless". -alex -- NYCwireless - http://www.nycwireless.net/ Un/Subscribe: http://lists.nycwireless.net/mailman/listinfo/nycwireless/ Archives: http://lists.nycwireless.net/pipermail/nycwireless/
