The Truth Behind The Baby Bells & 'Franchise Reform' → Re: Sounds Good to Me

I have issue with your use of the word "forced".

These companies aren't being forced to do anything. They're being offered the chance to provide service and build highly profitable assets on public ROW's in exchange for building out their network to communities that may not have a desirable adoption rate.

Much like if you want to build a house in said community you must abide by the permitting structure, electrical, waste disposal, and fire codes.

Frankly they'd still be better off if they built their own networks and allowed the private entities to compete to provide service on it, instead of inviting a previously abusive monopoly into their back yards.

Get some nice MBIA wrapped revenue bonds, and sell them into the hugely liquid Muni market with a 3.00% yield.

I'll grant you that 'forced' might not have been the best word choice. I'm all for following local codes and requirements. Every person and business should do so. I don't think that businesses should be required to serve every residence just for the opportunity to "open up shop" in a community. Should a cellular phone company be required to stand up a new transceiver closer to my house if my half of the city isn't covered just so the cellular provider has the opportunity to maintain their other transceivers?

I like the concept of a neutral infrastructure with a reselling capability. I don't think it will ever happen on a large scale though

Forced is exactly the word you should use. Remember, the cable/telco's are using PUBLIC LAND, to run their wires. It's in the publics BEST INTEREST to force them to provide universal service.

Look at it this way. If we left it to the megacorps, most farms and rural houses wouldn't even have electricity. The cost to run poles and wires to a farmhouse FAR outweigh any return they provide, but without electricity, we wouldn't have many farmers now, would we. It's the same with telephones, cable tv, and cell phone service. If they want the RIGHT (notice, it's a RIGHT, and a PRIVILEGE) to provide service, then we, the people, set the conditions they must meet before we allow them to do so. It's called democracy, where the greater public good out weights the rights of the megacorps.

How is it in the public's best interest to force universal service? How is in your best interest, or mine for that matter, to pay higher fees because a provider is mandated to serve everyone?I'll tag along with this comment. If consumers want the RIGHT (it is most definitely a privilege) to purchase my service, then businesses set the conditions to be met before providing service. Mainly, pay them what it costs to enable a sufficient ROI for all customers.

If they want to build the towers on Public property, they should have the expectation that one of their covenants for use of the space is to serve the entire community that owns said space. If you're not providing service to me, then you're misappropriating my share of the public space granted to me as a residence of the township.

Another reason for the need of public access is the physical impracticality of every citizen attending ANY local government function. There are 30,000 people in my town, should we drive down to Gilette stadium for every selectman's meeting/town meeting/school committee meeting/finance board meeting/zoning board meeting/conservation board meeting/DPW meeting etc.?

Until you show me that all 30K people are actually interested in attending such meetings, your point is null, IMO.

The phone company doesn’t' need a towns permission to maintain the cables. The town comes into play only with granting permission to deliver TV over the wires.

This place has been lied to by the likes of Teletruth for so long and hard the facts are buried beneath massive mountains of B.S.

In that case, I could care less about your opinion. It is arbitrarily null, for the same ridiculous reason. :P

We had so many people show up at a town meeting 6 months ago that we had to setup TWO overflow areas, linking them by cell phones. When both these auditoriums, and the main auditorium were packed full, people, invariably turned themselves away.

Ok, your experience is different than what I've seen in several communities. Must be nice to have a community that cares.

It's amazing how many people will show if you tell them you're either going to fire teachers or raise taxes for them umpteenth time. People got real fired up..