[133948] in North American Network Operators' Group
Re: Some truth about Comcast - WikiLeaks style
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Leo Bicknell)
Mon Dec 20 14:47:31 2010
Date: Mon, 20 Dec 2010 11:46:10 -0800
From: Leo Bicknell <bicknell@ufp.org>
To: NANOG list <nanog@nanog.org>
Mail-Followup-To: NANOG list <nanog@nanog.org>
In-Reply-To: <20101220193109.GA46970@gweep.net>
Errors-To: nanog-bounces+nanog.discuss=bloom-picayune.mit.edu@nanog.org
--UlVJffcvxoiEqYs2
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Disposition: inline
Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
In a message written on Mon, Dec 20, 2010 at 02:31:09PM -0500, Joe Provo wr=
ote:
> Everywhere that had enough paying-humans-per fiber-mile, so primarily
> the Northeast corridor (Metro DC through Metro Boston). Parts of the
> SF Bay, Chicago, Cleveland, Denver, Detroit... google "cable overbuilder"
> (RCN, WOW and several others). Nontrivial capital is required for the=20
> build-and-maintain of physical plant, so most all have shrunk since the=
=20
> bubble popping.
Interesting, I figured a few major cities would have a second
provider, being able to high a large high rise or apartment complex
might make the economics make sense.
=46rom the first google result for "cable overbuilder"
(http://www.satelliteguys.us/live-industry-news-feeds/62015-cable-overbuild=
ers-stage-comeback-near-death.html)
cuz "I'm feeling lucky". :)
As the biggest cable overbuilder and the 12th largest MSO in the U.S.,
RCN now boasts about 409,000 overall customers in its large urban
markets, which include Boston, New York City, Philadelphia, Washington,
D.C., Chicago, San Francisco and Los Angeles.
So if you cherry pick for where an overbuild makes sense, you get
409k subscribers. To compare, Comcast has 23 million subscribers
(video only, see http://www.cmcsk.com/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=3D523403)
and in fact lost 275,000 _in the third quarter_ alone
(http://broadcastengineering.com/news/comcast-loses-subscribers-internet-ta=
kes-toll-20101101/).
Which brings us back to the argument at hand, the problem is a
combination of factors, regulatority (franchise issues), physical
(plant in ground, and cost) and money (no one will finance it), but
the net result is that even just adding one provider makes sense
in only the smallest fraction of the country. Allowing more folks
to put plant in the ground is simply not useful to getting real
compeition to the vast majority of American homes. We need to share
the plant that is already there....
--=20
Leo Bicknell - bicknell@ufp.org - CCIE 3440
PGP keys at http://www.ufp.org/~bicknell/
--UlVJffcvxoiEqYs2
Content-Type: application/pgp-signature
Content-Disposition: inline
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v2.0.13 (FreeBSD)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=Psi1
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
--UlVJffcvxoiEqYs2--
