North American Network Operators Group Date Prev | Date Next | Date Index | Thread Index | Author Index | Historical Re: What do we mean when we say "competition?"
On Tue, 15 Nov 2005, Owen DeLong wrote: > Most places have no fiber "last-mile". Some do. Of those > that do, I know that many were installed by cable companies > and that there are in many of those places utility taxes > that are being collected and passed along to at least > partially fund said buildout. I know that Comcast > signed a huge sweet-heart deal with the city of San Jose, > for example before they started tearing up my neighborhood. > They seem to have laid interduct to the curb and co-ax > to the home. I haven't seen them bring any fiber anywhere > yet, but, I presume that's what the interduct is for at > some point. So I'm confused. San Jose is doing exactly what you are advocating. San Jose has decided to use taxpayer funds to build a city-owned fiber optic conduit system it will own and lease to telecommunication companies and other users. Palo Alto also spent a lot of its taxpayers funds to build a city-owned fiber optic system. http://www.sanjoseca.gov/budget/ http://www.sanjoseca.gov/budget/FY0506/proposedCapital/10.pdf See Fiber Optics Development Fund But what does that have to do with funding ILEC facilities? As I recall, despite spending a lot of taxpayer money, the cities couldn't convince the ILEC to use the city-owned fiber optic facilities. The ILECs built and use its own facilities, without taxpayer funds. Heck, until 1982, they wouldn't even sell you a phone. The phones were stamped property of the Bell System, not for sale. I'm not sure if there is really a natural monopoly. There are multiple wires to most houses and through most public rights of way. The fact that there a damage between different provider facilities when they dig in a right of way is evidence that right of ways contain multiple providers.
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