>Kathy wrote:
>
>>oligopolies are where the bulk of the market is controlled by a few firms
>
>>cable companies have non-compete licenses that give them an effective
>>monopoly over any specific geographical area, but as an industry, cable (in
>>the US) is an oligopoly.
>
>
>We have an interesting situation going on here with cable providers. The
>City of Ashland's Electrical Engineering Dept., which runs Ashland's
>private electrical power system, has gotten tentative approval of a $3.5
>million budget to install a fiberoptic network though town to provide cable
>TV and high-speed Internet access (similar to one in Palo Alto, I believe).
I believe the Tacoma WA is doing something similar.
>Our commercial cable provider has fought this move bitterly. Yet we've
>heard that they've decided that, rather than pull out of this market,
>they'll upgrade their service and use Ashland as an experiment in learning
>how to prevent loss of other markets like falling dominoes. This sounds
>like healthy competition to me.
A problem that I see is this -- why should we have /two/ sets of
fiber=optic cables running down one street - when just outside of the city
limits, there are none? At what point is the fiber-optic system a
"government" infrastructure expense, like sewer, roads, etc. instead of a
"private" enterprise (cable)?
This is the same problem with "electricity" delivery systems. The reason
that there have been "regulated monopolies" in power distribution is so
that we only had to have (ie, pay for) /one/ set of power lines running
down (or under) streets. Now we are going to de-regulate power delivery -
but who is going to maintain the lines? The last info I saw did not provide
an oppty for the "owner" of the lines to charge "rent" for others to use
the distribution system.
So, should this infrastructure be "owned in common"? Or is everything going
to be "wireless" and "satellite" in a few years anyway??? The AT&T/Airtouch
program -- all the country is "local" on your cellphone -- is this a
harbinger of things to come?
>BTW, there's a bit of irony in the fact that the City Council licenses one
>provider and now is going into competition with it. There were quite a few
>chuckles when in the first hearing, a representative from the commercial
>provider mentioned that they provide cable TV service to XX number of
>customers. He was trying to build a case around the City's projected
>numbers of customers being unrealistic. Suddenly our gorgeous blonde female
>mayor delicately held a hand up to interrupt him, shuffled through some
>papers, smiled sweetly, and said, "that's funny, it says here on your
>license application that you only serve X customers. Maybe we need to
>review your license application and fees."
LOVE IT! Hyperbole /can/ bite you!
===============================
Kathy E. Gill, Guide - http://agriculture.miningco.com/
Publisher, eNetDigest - http://www.enetdigest.com/
WWW design � writing � training - http://www.dotparagon.com/
You must be the change you wish to see in the world. - Gandhi
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