Also, don't mistake the electrical and water systems that we have now
with the ones that were (or more likely weren't) in existence when
these "utilities" or natural monopolies were created in the 19th and
early 20th centuries.
Broadband today is much more like the state of the electrical system
in the early part of last century than it is like the electrical or
water systems of the 21st century. So Jim's (and in part Alex's)
points below about the electrical and water systems are comparing
very old apples to very young oranges.
Now Alex, your point about the natural monopoly of the phone and coax
physical infrastructure is dead correct, as is your separation of
"broadband" or "internet service" over those physical lines from the
physical lines themselves.
This is an important distinction that the FCC has completely
backwards, and frankly, I think that, given that we're arguing mostly
about physical infrastructure, we should be pushing for FTC
regulation of these natural monopolies, and getting the FCC out of
the picture since this isn't their jurisdiction anyway.
Dana Spiegel
Executive Director
NYCwireless
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
www.NYCwireless.net
+1 917 402 0422
Read the Wireless Community blog: http://www.wirelesscommunity.info
On Jan 8, 2006, at 6:15 PM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
On Sun, 8 Jan 2006, Dustin Goodwin wrote:
I am not sure what rocket you had to strap to this article to make
the
leap from public policy that promotes broadband to socialism. But it
must have been large! Is NYC's water tunnel number 3 socialism or
smart
public policy? What the rural electrification authority socialism or
There is such thing as 'natural monopoly'. Gas lines, water lines,
*phone
lines and coax lines* are natural monopolies and does not make
sense to
have multiple companies competing with each other. Now, putting
*content*
over those lines is definitely *not* a natural monopoly. Broadband is
definitely *not* a natural monopoly.
smart public policy? YOUR ALREADY PAYING SUBSIDIES to the incumbent
Oh, man, don't even start with rural electrification. That is
*definitely*
socialism. In fact, that was Lenin's #2 order right after the
revolution.
(Trust me, I spent 16 years in Soviet Union).
telcos and getting nothing for it. How about we stop talking about
socialism and start talking about replacing dumb public policy (like
paying incumbent telcos for broadband we don't get) with smart public
policy. If you happy with current arrangement good for you. I am glad
your broadband sucks and is expensive. Maybe you do something that
doesn't depend on ubiquitous global Internet connectivity priced
properly. But I doubt it.
There's an obvious solution, 'structural separation' for ILECs - one
entity owns the wire plant and COs, another entity owns everything
inside
COs. Entity #1 would sell access to wire plant to all comers.
Of course, with current FCC this has a chance of snowball in hell of
happening.
--
NYCwireless - http://www.nycwireless.net/
Un/Subscribe: http://lists.nycwireless.net/mailman/listinfo/
nycwireless/
Archives: http://lists.nycwireless.net/pipermail/nycwireless/
--
NYCwireless - http://www.nycwireless.net/
Un/Subscribe: http://lists.nycwireless.net/mailman/listinfo/nycwireless/
Archives: http://lists.nycwireless.net/pipermail/nycwireless/
