[86757] in North American Network Operators' Group
Re: What do we mean when we say "competition?"
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Sean Donelan)
Wed Nov 16 03:12:16 2005
Date: Wed, 16 Nov 2005 03:11:47 -0500 (EST)
From: Sean Donelan <sean@donelan.com>
To: Owen DeLong <owen@delong.com>
Cc: nanog@merit.edu
In-Reply-To: <502A805ADF2348B8345B7050@odpwrbook.hq.netli.lan>
Errors-To: owner-nanog@merit.edu
On Tue, 15 Nov 2005, Owen DeLong wrote:
> Most places have no fiber "last-mile". Some do. Of those
> that do, I know that many were installed by cable companies
> and that there are in many of those places utility taxes
> that are being collected and passed along to at least
> partially fund said buildout. I know that Comcast
> signed a huge sweet-heart deal with the city of San Jose,
> for example before they started tearing up my neighborhood.
> They seem to have laid interduct to the curb and co-ax
> to the home. I haven't seen them bring any fiber anywhere
> yet, but, I presume that's what the interduct is for at
> some point.
So I'm confused. San Jose is doing exactly what you are advocating. San
Jose has decided to use taxpayer funds to build a city-owned fiber optic
conduit system it will own and lease to telecommunication companies and
other users. Palo Alto also spent a lot of its taxpayers funds to build
a city-owned fiber optic system.
http://www.sanjoseca.gov/budget/
http://www.sanjoseca.gov/budget/FY0506/proposedCapital/10.pdf
See Fiber Optics Development Fund
But what does that have to do with funding ILEC facilities?
As I recall, despite spending a lot of taxpayer money, the cities couldn't
convince the ILEC to use the city-owned fiber optic facilities. The ILECs
built and use its own facilities, without taxpayer funds. Heck, until
1982, they wouldn't even sell you a phone. The phones were stamped
property of the Bell System, not for sale.
I'm not sure if there is really a natural monopoly. There are multiple
wires to most houses and through most public rights of way. The fact that
there a damage between different provider facilities when they dig in
a right of way is evidence that right of ways contain multiple providers.
