In the past, I haven't seen much about how the "last feet" problem will be addressed in dense metropolitan areas. In multi-unit dwellings, often the wiring is still owned by the provider. So, even if you were to run fiber (municipal or otherwise) right up to the doorstep of a building, you wouldn't be able to cheaply run drops to every unit. In my previous readings, the laws in my area at least allow for provider "abandonment" or a buyout of the wiring, but I doubt those would help very much. I'd be interested in hearing if folks have seen otherwise, however.
Comcast Acquiring Time Warner Cable In All Stock Deal Worth $45.2 Billion
291–300 of 332 posts
Re: Comcast Acquiring Time Warner Cable In All Stock Deal Worth $45.2 Billion
#292Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I'd even like to see a fewer wireless carriers (consider that each for carrier are spending billions of dollars to roll out what amount to essentially identical network infrastructure often even from the same vendors) The identical network infrastructure argument only works if you assume it's a big part of the cost. I don't think that's true, only a fraction of your cell phone bill is spent building or maintaining…
>> I'd even like to see a fewer wireless carriers (consider that each for carrier are spending billions of dollars to roll out what amount to essentially identical network infrastructure often even from the same vendors) > The identical network infrastructure argument only works if you assume it's a big part of the cost. I don't think that's true, only a fraction of your cell phone bill is spent building or maintaini…
I've been in the industry for about a decade. All of the issues you're talking about stem from the confusion about whether telecom networks are private or public assets. If telco assets are public, net neutrality and network unification are obvious. If they're private, they're not obvious at all. The industry position is to be public when it's beneficial and private when it's not, which is totally rational and emulated in almost every infrastructure company.
The solution is to nationalize the infrastructure and privatize the access but this is politically a non-starter. We will always have a compromise because of the quasi-public/private partnership that is infrastructure. It is better to treat this as a condition of the game theory that governs our universe than it is to complain about the lack of fairness in the system.
As far as microcells, they don't really solve the problem of spectrum in aggregate only for individuals and they're, at best, a stopgap solution. Proximal networking is a potential alternative worthy of consideration, but that's at least a few years away right now.
Source: I'm a Sprint MVNO and a Telco nut.
Re: Comcast Acquiring Time Warner Cable In All Stock Deal Worth $45.2 Billion
#293Earlier quoted context omitted.
Comcast has a huge advantage owning the pipes into my house, but they squander it. Rather than provide services, they become highway robbers on their own toll road. Comcast could have been netflix, akamai and so much more years ago. So tell me how they don't have advantage?
> Comcast could have been netflix Netflix offers incredible value. Don't you think it's irrational for Comcast to offer up this value at the expense of their own profits when they are not being threatened? They are going to milk it for as long as they can.
Milking it is not a rational choice, expected but not rational. Comcast should have make the Roku, but due to a fixation on the analog cable infrastructure they did not. The amount of analog bandwidth they devote on their networks to digital traffic is a ridiculously small percentage of their capacity.
Comcast should have created the caching infrastructure that Akamai did. Comcast should have implemented cloud backup services. They have the capability to have 50+ Mbps from the customer to their datacenters. This is freak'n huge.
Why didn't comcast create a colo system so that providers could get as close as possible to the customer?
No, Comcast will go down with the Titanic with all of their riches. They have squandered more than they have protected.
Re: Comcast Acquiring Time Warner Cable In All Stock Deal Worth $45.2 Billion
#294Earlier quoted context omitted.
I was addressing chimeracoder's point about vertical integration. There might be tons of Android manufactures peddling phones, but Apple and Samsung are eating up all the profits because they are verticicaly integrated. That's the major play Comcast is making. I wouldn't be surprised to see this coming soon to wireless. Imagine movie caching servers integrated into the backhaul network instead of going over the publi…
Netflix already serve their content from servers colo'd at ISPs. Big FreeBSD boxes.
Re: Comcast Acquiring Time Warner Cable In All Stock Deal Worth $45.2 Billion
#295Earlier quoted context omitted.
The latency on cellular internet makes it unusable for many applications like gaming.
I've played many games of Starcraft on a Verizon LTE connection. Many (most?) online games have 250ms of latency "built in" to even the playing field for users with ping times below 250ms. LTE latency is usually closer to 50ms
250ms is probably ok for RTSs and turn based games, but would not work for anything fast paced.
Re: Comcast Acquiring Time Warner Cable In All Stock Deal Worth $45.2 Billion
#296If this merger goes thru, (and the AnitTrust people would have to be really asleep at the wheel for that) two things are certain: 1) Americans can expect some of the worst Cable price gouging they have ever seen 2) NetFlix, Amazon Prime et al will become really popular as a result of all the customers saying "FU ComcastWarner"
Does Comcast compete with Time Warner? I thought they had geographically separate monopolies
This is what I was wondering. I live in an area that only had comcast an no other option. When I visit places it seems to be either Time Warner and Comcast but not usually both.
Re: Comcast Acquiring Time Warner Cable In All Stock Deal Worth $45.2 Billion
#297Earlier quoted context omitted.
No. I believe in the concept of a natural monopoly for most utilities though - Building outside plant is horrendously expensive - it to me makes as much sense to have multiple cable providers as it does multiple sets of power/telephone/water/sewer infrastructure. I'd even like to see a fewer wireless carriers (consider that each for carrier are spending billions of dollars to roll out what amount to essentially ident…
Conventional economics states that in a natural monopoly the state should be the sole provider.
The public telephone company here, "state owned", was de-regulated decades ago.
What was once a state of the art network, the first all-digital telephone system, is now worse than what they're deploying in Eastern Europe. Prices have never been higher for a service that should be cheaper.
How do they even charge for long-distance voice calls these days? It's borderline criminal.
Re: Comcast Acquiring Time Warner Cable In All Stock Deal Worth $45.2 Billion
#298Earlier quoted context omitted.
The latency on cellular internet makes it unusable for many applications like gaming.
I've played many games of Starcraft on a Verizon LTE connection. Many (most?) online games have 250ms of latency "built in" to even the playing field for users with ping times below 250ms. LTE latency is usually closer to 50ms
250 ms for SC2 is a huge handicap and is definitely not added to the game. I can't imagine marine splitting(or really playing BW at all) with that kind of penalty.
That being said, Targa is famous for playing for a while via a 4g connection in Australia. So playing the game well is certainly possible.
Re: Comcast Acquiring Time Warner Cable In All Stock Deal Worth $45.2 Billion
#299Earlier quoted context omitted.
We could all pressure our local governments to provide municipal internet. Many cities have already created services that are much faster too.
Internet providers need to quit playing these shenanigans all the time. What they do is they build public roads. You wouldn't allow a company to build a public road, and then go: "Safeway trucks get a free pass, cause we have a deal with them; everyone else, $5 per vehicle. Except for you, Best Buy, you pay $25 - except Saturday and Sunday, when you may not pass at all."
What if a company built a private road and did the same thing? Would you still have a problem with it?
Re: Comcast Acquiring Time Warner Cable In All Stock Deal Worth $45.2 Billion
#300Earlier quoted context omitted.
Internet providers need to quit playing these shenanigans all the time. What they do is they build public roads. You wouldn't allow a company to build a public road, and then go: "Safeway trucks get a free pass, cause we have a deal with them; everyone else, $5 per vehicle. Except for you, Best Buy, you pay $25 - except Saturday and Sunday, when you may not pass at all."
What if a company built a private road and did the same thing? Would you still have a problem with it?
I've no problem with what people and companies do in their own backyards.