[IP] Citywide Hotspots vs. Incumbent Carriers

[David Farber <dave@farber.net>]

------ Forwarded Message
From: "Robert J. Berger" <rberger@ibd.com>
Date: Tue, 01 Feb 2005 12:03:36 -0800
To: Dewayne Hendricks <dewayne@warpspeed.com>, Dave Farber <dave@farber.net>
Subject: Re: [Dewayne-Net] Citywide Hotspots vs. Incumbent Carriers

In the article " Citywide Hotspots vs. Incumbent Carriers"
<http://www.wi-fiplanet.com/news/article.php/3465811>
The reporter said:

Their [incumbent monopoly carrier] argument:
> City governments are funded by tax revenues
> unavailable to the corporate sector. Furthermore, their nature is such
> that they can legally offer at-cost services to the general public,
> answering only to their primary goal of benefiting all citizens. By
> contrast, public corporations such as Verizon answer to their
> shareholders, and any attempt to deliver competitive services at
> comparable cost?certain to be unprofitable?would likely be perceived
> unfavorably by those shareholders.

Well, by similar logic. Incumbent monopoly carriers should not be allowed to
provide services:

Incumbent carriers had their infrastructure paid for by ratepayers under a
government regulated monopoly. Their nature is to gouge the ratepayers as
much as possible an limit their choice to "Intelligent Networks" that allow
them to charge for things like "Call Waiting", "Touch Tone dialing", and
blocking caller ID.

By contrast municipalities answer to their citizens through a process called
democracy, and any and any attempt to deliver services that the incumbent
refuses to deploy or breaks their promise to deploy (Fiber to the home, DSL
to underserved regions and other promises made to PUCs and FCC over the
years) would like be blocked through bribes to politicians and vast legal
attacks funded by said ratepayers.

--
Robert J. Berger - Internet Bandwidth Development, LLC.
Voice: 408-882-4755 eFax: +1-408-490-2868
http://www.ibd.com



------ End of Forwarded Message


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