[160154] in North American Network Operators' Group
Re: Muni fiber: L1 or L2?
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Dan Armstrong)
Thu Jan 31 22:43:42 2013
X-beanfield-mta01-MailScanner-From: dan@beanfield.com
From: Dan Armstrong <dan@beanfield.com>
In-Reply-To: <510B33F9.2050401@nic-naa.net>
Date: Thu, 31 Jan 2013 22:43:25 -0500
To: ebw@abenaki.wabanaki.net
Cc: nanog@nanog.org
Errors-To: nanog-bounces+nanog.discuss=bloom-picayune.mit.edu@nanog.org
I don't have specific data to point you to. I am speaking from my =
experience, in large cities. Totally different story in rural or =
suburban areas.
In general, if a municipality builds an L1 or L2 network it removes so =
many barriers of competition that many idiots get into the business. =
The consumer ends up suffering, because the market is overwhelmed with =
inferior products. The few that do things 'right' get lost in the sea =
of bottom feeders looking for a quick buck. Unlike a hamburger, or a =
t-shirt - telecom is a complex product that most consumers are unable to =
appreciate the details of. They aren't going to educate themselves on =
the nuances of quality, so the people offering a better product have no =
way of getting ahead in this near-perfect competitive situation.
A city government benefits from economic prosperity, which comes from =
businesses within it's boundaries being prosperous. Access to great =
telecom services is one factor in that prosperity. That is the business =
model for a municipality to want good telecom. =20
A municipality can lease out conduits, for a small fee - there is still =
a reasonable barrier to entry. People have to pull cable, splice it, =
manage it, light it, sell it, and do all the stuff a telco has to do =
before they receive revenue. This filters out (most) of the =
opportunists=85 but makes it easy enough for entrepreneurs with a great =
idea to get started without having to come up with billions of $ in =
capital to open-trench the streets in the entire city. In the case of =
a growing municipality, if they play their cards right they can pay for =
the entire conduit system from development fees collected from land or =
re-zoning deals, which furthers the virtuous circle of growth.
On 2013-01-31, at 10:18 PM, Eric Brunner-Williams <brunner@nic-naa.net> =
wrote:
> On 1/31/13 6:28 PM, Dan Armstrong wrote:
>> But the most successful municipal undertaking to support telecom I =
have ever seen is a municipally owned conduit system=85.=20
>=20
> Could you be a bit more specific? What is the muni, and where can the
> business model data be found?
>=20
> Also, what was the muni's ROW compensation prior to doing the
> right-of-way buildout, and after?
>=20
> Eric
>=20
>=20
