[133897] in North American Network Operators' Group
Re: Some truth about Comcast - WikiLeaks style
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Jeffrey S. Young)
Sun Dec 19 22:31:50 2010
In-Reply-To: <20101220014804.GD38726@gerbil.cluepon.net>
From: "Jeffrey S. Young" <young@jsyoung.net>
Date: Sun, 19 Dec 2010 22:31:37 -0500
To: Richard A Steenbergen <ras@e-gerbil.net>
Cc: Bryan Fields <Bryan@bryanfields.net>, "nanog@nanog.org" <nanog@nanog.org>
Errors-To: nanog-bounces+nanog.discuss=bloom-picayune.mit.edu@nanog.org
one of the most interesting things about coming to Australia (after working i=
n the USA telecom industry for 20 years) was the opportunity to see such a p=
roposal (the NBN) put into practice. who knows if the NBN will be quite wha=
t everyone hopes, but the premise is sound, the last mile is a natural monop=
oly.
I believe that 'competition' in the last mile is a red herring that simply m=
aintains the status quo (which for many broadband consumers is woefully inad=
equate). I agree with you that the USA has too many lobbyists to ever put su=
ch a proposal in place, the telecoms in a large number of states have even l=
imited or prevented municipalities from creating their own solutions, consum=
ers have no hope. one has to wonder how different the telecom world might h=
ave been in the USA if a layer 1 - layer 2/3 separation was proposed instead=
of the at&t breakup and modified judgement
jy
On 19/12/2010, at 8:48 PM, Richard A Steenbergen <ras@e-gerbil.net> wrote:
> On Sun, Dec 19, 2010 at 08:20:49PM -0500, Bryan Fields wrote:
>>=20
>> The government granting a monopoly is the problem, and more lame=20
>> government regulation is not the solution. Let everyone compete on a=20
>> level playing field, not by allowing one company to buy a monopoly=20
>> enforced by men with guns.
>=20
> Running a wire to everyone's house is a natural monopoly. It just=20
> doesn't make sense, financially or technically, to try and manage 50=20
> different companies all trying to install 50 different wires into every=20=
> house just to have competition at the IP layer. It also wouldn't make=20
> sense to have 5 different competing water companies trying to service=20
> your house, etc. This is where government regulation of the entities who=20=
> ARE granted the monopoly status comes into play, to protect consumers=20
> against abuses like we're seeing Comcast commit today.
>=20
> Personally I think the right answer is to enforce a legal separation=20
> between the layer 1 and layer 3 infrastructure providers, and require=20
> that the layer 1 network provide non-discriminatory access to any=20
> company who wishes to provide IP to the end user. But that would take a=20=
> lot of work to implement, and there are billions of dollars at work=20
> lobbying against it, so I don't expect it to happen any time soon. :)
>=20
> --=20
> Richard A Steenbergen <ras@e-gerbil.net> http://www.e-gerbil.net/ras=
> GPG Key ID: 0xF8B12CBC (7535 7F59 8204 ED1F CC1C 53AF 4C41 5ECA F8B1 2CBC)=
>=20
>=20
