11–20 of 270 posts
> I would love to see a world where the companies that own last-mile infrastructure are required to lease the lines to any ISP the end consumer wants; this would create a competitive market and mostly eliminate the problem. Devil's advocate, why would any company want to be the infrastructure-owning company then? Aren't they in the worst spot?
> I would love to see a world where the companies that own last-mile infrastructure are required to lease the lines to any ISP the end consumer wants; this would create a competitive market and mostly eliminate the problem. Devil's advocate, why would any company want to be the infrastructure-owning company then? Aren't they in the worst spot?
Also, you describe a last-mile competitive scenario that is very similar to the energy deregulation that recently occurred in New Jersey. I think it has produced pretty good results for customers. Here's a good/concise explanation of how they did it:
"I have met with the Chairman of the FCC, Tom Wheeler, and I believe he is a good actor that wants to do the right thing. But he is fighting against very powerful lobbyists and large companies that want to disrupt the freedom of the Internet." "Prior to working at the FCC, Wheeler worked as a venture capitalist and lobbyist for the cable and wireless industry" -Wikipedia Really? Somehow I doubt that he has turned a f…
Truth is he is probably a politician. He will do whatever he thinks is going to get him the most support. So if you can convince him that is going against his former friends, he will do that. (180 flips in policy are very common in politicians.)
I've been fairly on the fence regarding net neutrality, and this article turned me around on the issue. Previously, it was nearly impossible for me to reconcile a valid reason for regulating the telcos. It's their pipes, they should be able to route it however they want. And aside from that, we've never had net neutrality -- there's no ISP I've ever used that allows unfettered upstream access to port 80 from my home,…
It's their pipes, not their traffic. A minor distinction, but an important one. :)
> I would love to see a world where the companies that own last-mile infrastructure are required to lease the lines to any ISP the end consumer wants; this would create a competitive market and mostly eliminate the problem. Devil's advocate, why would any company want to be the infrastructure-owning company then? Aren't they in the worst spot?
This is pretty much how it works in the UK; see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Openreach
It does seem to work pretty well.. there are a wide variety of operators and prices are very low. If I had to pick out common criticisms, Openreach can take their time if you have to deal with them directly (getting a line installed in a new office or apartment can take a few weeks), and there seems to be very limited innovation in the last mile - even in London it's hard to get more than 20mbps, and many people in rural areas are stuck with a crappy DSL line at 2mbps or so.
> I would love to see a world where the companies that own last-mile infrastructure are required to lease the lines to any ISP the end consumer wants; this would create a competitive market and mostly eliminate the problem. Devil's advocate, why would any company want to be the infrastructure-owning company then? Aren't they in the worst spot?
Why would any company want to sell electricity or water? This is not a new problem. Let's stop pretending it is.