[169952] in North American Network Operators' Group
Re: Level 3 blames Internet slowdowns on Technica
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Jared Mauch)
Fri Mar 21 14:23:33 2014
From: Jared Mauch <jared@puck.nether.net>
In-Reply-To: <6C136BD0-8675-4115-9F87-0AB8202B7DD0@comcast.net>
Date: Fri, 21 Mar 2014 14:21:09 -0400
To: Keegan Holley <no.spam@comcast.net>
Cc: nanog@nanog.org
Errors-To: nanog-bounces+nanog.discuss=bloom-picayune.mit.edu@nanog.org
On Mar 21, 2014, at 2:08 PM, Keegan Holley <no.spam@comcast.net> wrote:
> How come no one ever asks if competition is required?
I think the issue here is there is competition, but those you are seen =
as competing with are in a different strata providing the same service.
eg: Cellular data competes with DSL/DOCSIS/FTT*
Now, due to speed, caps, etc.. it may not be a "fair" comparison, but =
this isn't about fair, it's about "is there competition in the market". =
I know many folks that live outside the wired high-speed boundaries and =
things are not getting any better there. Most use some hotspot or =
similar for their home connectivity.
Is there a market for high speed there? certainly, but it's being =
filled by other technology. =20
There are many folks that work around these issues with other solutions, =
including satellite, fixed wireless and/or microwave or even localized =
fiber build-outs. Look at the RUS/NTIA/BTOP focus, it was on getting =
the anchor institutions well connected to provide a sense of community. =
The challenge is not everyone is equally equipped. Merit (in my area) =
has fiber close to me, but they don't offer services to anyone but =
existing members and have no consumer offerings.
Market segmentation happens for a variety of reasons, sometimes =
economic, sometimes complete differences in ROI models.
Nobody can afford to run universal fiber everywhere as a greenfield =
build, but there are localized markets where it can make sense. =
Certainly it can make sense to connect some islands to each other via =
some other technology. Taking list prices from providers webpages, what =
cogent used to list $4/meg, so that means (assuming everything is =
perfect) offering 10Mb/s service at a home could possibly cost $40/mo =
for a provider, not counting capital costs and other elements (support, =
customer acquisition costs, bad debt, etc).
I'm sure folks can build networks for low cost, you can get a 1G =
active-ethernet NID for sub-$150 with optics, but you still need to =
aggregate and account for it somewhere.
- Jared=
