[10843] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
Re: clarifying NAP discussions
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Ken Harmon)
Sat Mar 12 02:01:00 1994
Date: Fri, 11 Mar 1994 20:11:52 -0700
To: karl@mcs.com (Karl Denninger)
From: kharmon@krh.com (Ken Harmon)
Cc: com-priv@psi.com
>Keep the government out of it. Private enterprise is doing quite a nice
>job in the Internet area, thank you very much.
>
The solution here is to
>force the cable plant to be made available to any and all comers for the
>cost of maintenance; the public has already paid for the cable plant
>through monopoly practice, and as such IMHO the telco is not entitled to
>recover a red cent of that "investment" -- it was made at ZERO risk.
>
I think you will have a conflict here; keeping govt out but 'forcing' the
cable cos to provide service at minimal/maint cost. Sounds like a Public
Utilities Commission role, which is govt.
I think the solution is to inform more people about the value of the
Internet while increasing the value as well. Rural populations (and urban
as well) will pay for services for which there is an obvious value, and
will not use free services if there is no value.
By value I do not mean advertising and entertainment per se, although some
of that will come along. I mean useful information, easily accessed.
For providing access, creating telecom co-ops and/or telecom taxing
districts to share the load are two ideas. Then the vendor is whoever can
provide the best price to meet the needs of the district/co-op area. The
service can be contracted or wholly owned.
Ken
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Ken Harmon kharmon@krh.com
KRH Group tel: 303/663-1599
PO Box 7266 fax: 303/663-0273
Loveland, CO 80537
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