Just keep in mind that in exchange for the governmental help, these utilities were made into monopolies. If you look at pictures of the streets of a large city from the turn of the century you'd see masses of wires everywhere from the multiple phone companies and electric providers. A business had to have 4 or 5 phones installed to have access to the competing networks. Each utility was eventually consolidated into one provider per service. We now have multiple paths to the internet in lots of areas and there isn't much of a reason to scale it down to one and become a classic utility. I'm sure the government would love to have that happen, easier to deal with for them. Giving a large chunk of cash to one regional provider would be a step in that direction (Broadband Stimulus) but would still not kill the rest of us unless they eventually regulated out competition. If the idea was indeed to do a large scale build out to provide access to everyone, who would be the provider and who would eventually own the infrastructure of such a system?
Robert West Just Micro Digital Services Inc. -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Scottie Arnett Sent: Thursday, October 08, 2009 10:19 PM To: [email protected]; WISPA General List Subject: Re: [WISPA] Barriers to WISP growth Brian makes good points, as long as the FCC would allow any ISP the rights to this: "It's time to do the same for the internet and broadband. Not just one time funding for build outs, but also money to help sustain the operations over time in markets that just can't do it otherwise." The Rural Telephone Cooperatives "rule the roost" in my competitive area(with telephone and internet) and they should not be the only ones getting this funding. The FCC has already done that with the "rural exemption" clauses in the TA of 1996, along with other telecom wide Act's passages. Scottie ---------- Original Message ---------------------------------- From: Brian Webster <[email protected]> Reply-To: [email protected], WISPA General List <[email protected]> Date: Thu, 08 Oct 2009 13:38:37 -0400 >Part of the issue for the rural markets is the actual household density. There are some areas that on their own, will not sustain a viable business model even if you have grant money to fund the initial build out. The internet should be viewed as a utility. When other utility technologies were new (electricity and telephone) the government fought with this same exact problem. For the telephone industry they came up with the universal services fund (USF). Areas that qualified for this funding received monthly subsidies to balance out the costs to make it a viable business model in those areas that did not otherwise make the case for private enterprise to do it alone. The Rural Electrification Act (REA) also did things to solve these problems. It's time to do the same for the internet and broadband. Not just one time funding for build outs, but also money to help sustain the operations over time in markets that just can't do it otherwise. Wireless High Speed Broadband service from Info-Ed, Inc. as low as $30.00/mth. Check out www.info-ed.com/wireless.html for information. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- WISPA Wants You! Join today! http://signup.wispa.org/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- WISPA Wireless List: [email protected] Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- WISPA Wants You! Join today! http://signup.wispa.org/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- WISPA Wireless List: [email protected] Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/
