On Tue, Nov 25, 2008 at 11:52 AM, Russell Senior <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > >>>>>> "Michael" == Michael <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > > Michael> What about a worst case scenario? I don't think there's > Michael> anyone in my neighborhood (39th and Holgate) that would be > Michael> interested. What would it cost for me to get a run to > Michael> myself? How would I be able to get cheap bandwidth as a > Michael> result? > > I think as long as we are stuck in the telco-as-monopoly-resource- > extractor model, it's going to remain expensive. Both of the > incumbent carriers have business interests in bandwidth remaining > scarse and expensive. Having bandwidth allows the consumer to route > around the incumbents' lucrative television or voice business models, > so as long as you are reliant on them, you'll continue to have bad > choices.
To clarify Russell's point: The telcos have a monopoly (or the cable/telcos have a duopoly) on the carriage of your bandwidth. That infrastructure, is not, in of itself, lucrative for them. In fact, my sense is that they mostly feel it is a miserable asset that they are forced to maintain in order to continue to charge customers for bandwidth and content. Consider how recalcitrant they often are to send a tech out to repair things. Building a community fiber network will always be costly, but I would argue that it is not expensive. The benefits, both tangible (access to $10-20 bandwidth, from your choice of providers) and intangible (access to traditional content over a new medium and access to new content that does not fit the old model) are enormous and outweigh the expense withing a couple years. The main barrier, as I see it, is lack of curiosity and inertia. Convincing your neighbors it is time to take the plunge is a matter of illustrating what the future could (should) look like. -- Michael Weinberg President Personal Telco Project, Inc. A 501(c)(3) Non-Profit --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ The Personal Telco Project - http://www.personaltelco.net/ Donate to PTP: http://www.personaltelco.net/donate Archives: http://news.gmane.org/gmane.network.wireless.portland.general/ Etiquette: http://www.personaltelco.net/index.cgi/MailingListEtiquette List information: http://lists.personaltelco.net To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
