[1896] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
Re: The NREN and Regulation
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Steve Simmons)
Mon Jan 6 18:25:22 1992
From: scs@lokkur.dexter.mi.us (Steve Simmons)
To: com-priv@psi.com
Date: Mon, 6 Jan 92 17:48:05 EST
In-Reply-To: <9201061056.AA03270@kauai.MCL.Unisys.COM>; from "Dennis Perry" at Jan 6, 92 05:56:29 am
>Niche companies will provide
>services to those unique areas or regional interests, and rural America
>will in general be left to what is left over because the cost of service
>will be higher than the traffice will bear. Ultimately, this latter
>areas is where the government may well have to step in to provide
>equity, either thru regulation or separate funding and support.
History provides a number of not-so-pretty examples of how unregulated
utilities failed abysmally to service rural areas. If memory serves,
the Rural Electrification Act was required to get electricity to farms,
and the regulation of the phone companies was required to get telephone
service.
We're not talking ancient history here, we're talking Lyndon Johnson
as a prime mover in some of those "reforms". I'll not comment on the
rationality of making the close'n'cheap center pay for the cost of
the far'n'costly rural areas, but note that the extension of infra-
structure seems to always yield benefits -- be that infrastructure
telephony, electricity, highways, or networks.
For the next few decades, a regulated carrier (or network of carriers)
might well be the way to go.
FYI, last time I checked Dexter had just broken 2000 population -- and
we live well outside of town. So I have some small personal stake. :-)
