Lars,
Currently, I guess you could say just two lines suitable for broadband
enter my home.
One is the power line. We do not have BPL available in ths area but I
thought I'd mention it since it is technically possible.
The other is coax provided by Comcast cable. From Comcast I get my
video, Internet, and digital voice service.
Now I do have copper from the ILEC (Incumbent Local Exchange
Carrier) Verizon temrinated on the outside of my home. I disconnected them
and went with Comcast due to both better voice quality and lower price.
Verizon has now met Comcast's price, but they didn't do that until
competition with Comcast happened. I used Verizon and its predecessor Bell
of Pennsylvania for 29 years and they never rewarded me with this discount
when I was a loyal customer with nowhere to go. I'll stick with Comcast now.
I do have other choices but I don't use them. I could get fiber or
DSL based Internet from Verizon. I could get the same coax offerings I get
from Comcast from RCN Cable if I chose. I could also get DSL from several
other resellers, and there is at least one wireless Internet provider in my
area. All of these choices are right outside my door if I want them.
I am moving about 40 miles away in a few months when my new home is
built. I will have pretty much the same options except fiber based Internet
from Verizon, and my second cable company is Service Electric instead of
RCN. Again though I have already ordered service from Comcast. I am
however going to have Verizon drop copper in the utility trench going up to
my house for they will do it no charge. Should I decide to use them later it
would probably cost me to have the copper run for it's a 900 foot run up my
driveway to the house. For new construction they will do it for free since
they don't know I don't plan to use them.
So you can see, at least in my area, I have quite a bit of choice in
broadband, all thanks to capitalism, not government!
Respectfully,
Jim
> -----Original Message-----
> From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf
> Of Lars Aronsson
> Sent: Monday, January 09, 2006 5:39 AM
> To: Jim Henry
> Cc: 'nycwireless'
SNIP
>
> I hope this means we're back to discussing broadband. Good.
>
> Jim, how many physical lines suitable for broadband (phone, cable
> TV, fiber, etc.) enter your home? This can be a critical factor
> for achieving competition and thus lower prices for broadband.
>
> My apartment has 3 lines: phone, cable TV, and the aforementioned
> CAT-5 ethernet.
>
> The copper phone line belongs to the old incumbent, the national
> telecom, now named Telia-Sonera. In theory they are forced to
> open their facilities to competing DSL providers, and this works
> reasonably well in a city where I live, but in many smaller towns
> or rural areas the telco often gets away with claiming that their
> facilities are booked full and there is no practical way to allow
> competitors in. Telecom deregulation came later to Sweden than to
> the U.S., and our FCC is weaker. Our old incumbent is stronger,
> and has been able to maintain more of its old monopoly situation.
> This is bad, the only good solution is to avoid the phone network
> all together.
>
> The TV cable belongs to the cable company which also provides
> broadband Internet access, but doesn't allow any competition over
> this line, and there is no legal requirement for this. Vertical
> integration from the physical cable to the services offered is bad
> for competition.
>
> The third line, the LAN, is necessary for providing broadband in
> true competition with the two other lines. Unfortunately, the LAN
> is now owned by the ISP who installed it, so in a way this is
> another case of vertical integration. I would have preferred that
> my coop had built its own LAN and then connected two or more ISPs
> to the switch in the basement. But this would have required a
> technical insight that the coop didn't have in 1999. This is not
> a perfect solution, but it's one of the best that I've seen in
> Sweden. Maybe the best part is that it is totally independent of
> the old hated telco.
>
> The municipal street fiber that connects the LAN to the ISP is a
> monopoly, but I haven't heard that it has been mismanaged. Some
> smaller towns want to be service providers as well as fiber owners
> (vertical integration again) and this would inevitably lead to
> bias against other service providers. Broadband seems to work
> better in reasonably big cities, and worse in smaller places. So
> it should work better in New York City than anywhere else.
>
>
> --
> Lars Aronsson ([EMAIL PROTECTED])
> Aronsson Datateknik - http://aronsson.se
> --
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