Netflix and Alphabet will need to become ISPs, fast • Hacker News Board

Re: Netflix and Alphabet will need to become ISPs, fast

#281

Post by mmt » Sat, Jun 16, 2018, 5:03 AM UTC

bshacklett wrote: post #279

mmt wrote: post #209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> you could simply direct hospitals to treat poor people for free. Nobody does that Actually, I believe that's exactly what happens in the US with emergency departments. Although it supports your point about such a practice being distortionary, it also draws attention to the fact of the sheer complexity of all this. That's mostly what bothers me about seemingly-simple statement or analogies about economics (or, reall…

It's not just emergency departments. I worked for a hospital system in Maine. We provided a significant amount of free care (emergency and otherwise) to those with a qualifying income level as part of a state program.

That sounds very much like Medicaid, or are you saying that the state mandates that the cost of the care come out of the "pocket" of the hospital?

Re: Netflix and Alphabet will need to become ISPs, fast

#282

Post by pbreit » Sat, Jun 16, 2018, 10:23 PM UTC

HillaryBriss wrote: post #15

pbreit wrote: post #3

Sounds like healthy competition?

it's healthy in the sense that the giants are pitted against each other. it's unhealthy in the sense that the little player is basically locked out. it's also unhealthy in the sense that the big players will be incentivized to unite in an unholy alliance against the masses for the sake of increased profitability.

Maybe not every sized company should be tackling every market.

Re: Netflix and Alphabet will need to become ISPs, fast

#283

Post by mikedilger » Sun, Jun 17, 2018, 4:13 AM UTC

ksec wrote: post #264

mikedilger wrote: post #237

Earlier quoted context omitted.

New Zealand does this. It works well. There is plenty of ISP competition - I can choose between at least 20 providers, probably a lot more. Edit: A colleague just mentioned to me that New Zealand doesn't have net neutrality and doesn't need it for this very reason.

I tried reading this in Wiki and it wasn't very clear. Are the last mile fibre? Do government owns it or are they like infrastructure owned by companies like electricity and water where there are requirement for them to open up? Do ISP only manage the fibre connection from Node / Curb? Who owns this Node / Curb? Are there any single major companies that owns the backbone? And Submarine cables?

Most of the last mile is copper, because population density is thin. But in the cities fibre is being rolled out (goal is 87% by 2022).

Crown Fibre Holdings owns the new fibre network (I think Chorus owns all the copper, not sure) but Chorus manages most of it (by contract); Chorus is a crown partner company, and they are regulated and forbidden from certain activities - they were split off from Telecom, a private company.

I don't know enough about the backbone to usefully comment, except that there are at least 3 fibre networks running along the major road I live near.

For a long time there was only one submarine cable with any serious bandwidth (Southern Cross Cable), but aparently according to Wikipedia a new one to AUS was rolled out in March 2017 and another one to Hawaii this month.

Re: Netflix and Alphabet will need to become ISPs, fast

#284

Post by xj9 » Tue, Jun 19, 2018, 3:40 AM UTC

falcolas wrote: post #165

xj9 wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

the hypothetical here is that Comca$t is going to artificially throttle Netflix and give you mandatory free (paid) access to their own streaming platform. all a WISP has to do to compete is offer more bandwidth than the throttle allows with no bandwidth shaping at a competitive price.

If all that the internet was was streaming video, sure. It's not, though. The WISP also has to be resilient against Comcast removing the cap at a lower price (at least until the WISP folds). And against being bought out by Comcast. And against Comcast's lawyers and lobbyists (the wireless spectrum being a government controlled and finite resource).

you make it sound like competing with comcast is impossible. it might be difficult, yes, but if you have less-than-shit policies in your state/muni lots of options tend to pop up.

i live in Utah, and i have several ISP options pretty much anywhere along the Wasatch Front, including fiber and wireless. i can't speak for anywhere else, but its not like its impossible.