If you had genuine competition (instead of monopolies or anti-competitive oligopolies like Comcast and Verizon and AT&T) then the dinosaurs would be forced to do better to compete.
The fact that the dinosaur ISPs are going to such great lengths to try and stop any new competition shows how scared they are of actually having to operate in a genuinely competitive market.
Make the market competitive and free and let the marketplace sort things out with whichever providers provide the best product (whether th
Why is water service not provided via a competition-driven capitalistic solution? It's because someone had to lay those pipes and they want a return on that investment, so they're not going to figure out a way to let some competitor's water use those same pipes. When Comcast pays the money to lay the fiber to a neighborhood, they want to sell internet services to those residents to recoup those costs and to earn a profit. Would it be moral for us to compel Comcast to carry their competitors internet services on Comcast's fiber? Should we expect some other company to pay to lay a redundant set of fiber, which will cost more and service an area that's already being serviced? Sure, there are some other delivery mechanisms, like cellular or satellite wireless, but those can't really compare to a proper fiber run.
Some services lend themselves to natural monopolies, and I think that internet service is one of them. It would be great if we could get realistic competition in the ISP marketplace, but given the nature of the service, I don't think that's ever going to happen (and that's ignoring all of the government corruption that those oligopolies have bought to protect their positions).
Uhm... Yes it would be moral to compel Comcast or anyone else to share the fiber they put in the ground, for a fee of course, so they can recoup their investment and make a profit. It's simple, if you want the special privileges such as right of way access to lay fiber in places, you have to agree to share the access. And yes, Comcast does get special privileges, for example they can dig right through my private property, dig up my front lawn if they want to run a fiber through it, and there is absolutely n
Iâ(TM)d go further. Force Comcast to either stop providing Internet service over the physical network they own, or to sell the physical network to a company (or the government).
The fact that they have privileged access to the infrastructure means we canâ(TM)t trust them to compete fairly. I donâ(TM)t really trust regulators to ensure that they do.
At least where I live, the city residents paid for the cable infrastructure through a bond issue (for the up front cash) and a millage (to buy back the bonds over time). The original cable company also got a 30 year monopoly guarantee as part of the deal. Granted, both the original and current cable companies did upgrades, but the highest speed offered is still only 50 mega bits per sec - far from the giga bits per sec service I see advertised. After a little research, I determined the giga bit service in o
"If a computer can't directly address all the RAM you can use, it's just a toy."
-- anonymous comp.sys.amiga posting, non-sequitir
Competition is the answer (Score:5, Interesting)
If you had genuine competition (instead of monopolies or anti-competitive oligopolies like Comcast and Verizon and AT&T) then the dinosaurs would be forced to do better to compete.
The fact that the dinosaur ISPs are going to such great lengths to try and stop any new competition shows how scared they are of actually having to operate in a genuinely competitive market.
Make the market competitive and free and let the marketplace sort things out with whichever providers provide the best product (whether th
Re:Competition is the answer (Score:2)
Some services lend themselves to natural monopolies, and I think that internet service is one of them. It would be great if we could get realistic competition in the ISP marketplace, but given the nature of the service, I don't think that's ever going to happen (and that's ignoring all of the government corruption that those oligopolies have bought to protect their positions).
Re: (Score:2)
Uhm... Yes it would be moral to compel Comcast or anyone else to share the fiber they put in the ground, for a fee of course, so they can recoup their investment and make a profit. It's simple, if you want the special privileges such as right of way access to lay fiber in places, you have to agree to share the access. And yes, Comcast does get special privileges, for example they can dig right through my private property, dig up my front lawn if they want to run a fiber through it, and there is absolutely n
Re: Competition is the answer (Score:2)
Iâ(TM)d go further. Force Comcast to either stop providing Internet service over the physical network they own, or to sell the physical network to a company (or the government).
The fact that they have privileged access to the infrastructure means we canâ(TM)t trust them to compete fairly. I donâ(TM)t really trust regulators to ensure that they do.
Re: (Score:2)
At least where I live, the city residents paid for the cable infrastructure through a bond issue (for the up front cash) and a millage (to buy back the bonds over time). The original cable company also got a 30 year monopoly guarantee as part of the deal. Granted, both the original and current cable companies did upgrades, but the highest speed offered is still only 50 mega bits per sec - far from the giga bits per sec service I see advertised. After a little research, I determined the giga bit service in o