openbox9
join:2004-01-26
Alexandria, VA
 ·AT&T Southeast
| Re: First place I didn't mean to imply that you had a viewpoint one way or another. said by CylonRed  :Not to mention that the build out the original companies built (copper) - was paid for, and still being paid for, by our taxes - not their profit. Yes, the original copper infrastructure was built via the assistance of government sanctioned/regulated monopolies and nice tax benefits. Are you implying that new infrastructure build outs and existing O&M costs are not being paid for by ILEC profits? Hopefully not. | |
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CylonRed
Premium,MVM
join:2000-07-06
Bloom County
| Re: First place Up till last year they were still collecting the tax for those build outs and I have no reason to believe that money was not used for build outs and maintenance (plus padded profits).
Problem is - there is no way for 5-6 ILEC's to build all their own infrastructure - too costly and you would have issues with rights on poles and re-digging up folks lawn for hopefully some undefined number of customers. That is the reason I don;t think there will be any more than 2 companies doing fiber to the home. The pockets of most companies are not deep enough - even Verizon was having issues with shareholders not seeing the value soon enough. It is going to take a lot of time for the cost of the service to go down to what people expect.
People/customers are promised cheap tv, phone and internet but as many have found out - they will raise the rates as soon as they can to help pay for the new builds and make some profits. They get people in with cheap prices initially then raise the rates.
If every company be it ILEC/CLEC/cable has to do their own infrastructure than across the US expect to see 2 cable companies at most and 2 ILEC's remain in business (Verizon/AT&T) and that's it. Because of the barriers to entry are so high - building all new infrastructure for everyone will cause higher prices and less competition. | |
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 | openbox9
join:2004-01-26
Alexandria, VA
·AT&T Southeast
| Re: First place Are you talking about the USF slush fund?
I'm with you on the ROI for rolling out new infrastructure. That's why I question why some people expect companies that make that investment to open their lines to competitors when the cost to deploy and support the infrastructure is so large in the first place.
You said it earlier, but there is no easy answer for this. Nobody (including me as a taxpayer) wants to pay for infrastructure that will be shared amongst multiple competitors. Other options have less popularity, so the question becomes, do we need additional providers in the market, or are we currently heading in the right direction? | |
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John Galt
Forward, March
Premium
join:2004-09-30
Happy Camp
·CenturyLink
| Re: First place said by openbox9 :Nobody (including me as a taxpayer) wants to pay for infrastructure that will be shared amongst multiple competitors. This is a ridiculous assertion. That is like saying that you want every trucking company to build their own roads for exclusively transporting their goods.
Perhaps you meant to say this:
Nobody (including me as a taxpayer) wants to pay for infrastructure that will NOT be shared amongst multiple competitors.
As other posters have pointed out, there is only so much ROW for these things...
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| | | openbox9
join:2004-01-26
Alexandria, VA | Re: First place Ok, let me rephrase. I'm all for a common infrastructure for any and all providers to provide service, as long as it can be paid for without additional tax dollars. Is that better? | |
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| | | | | openbox9
join:2004-01-26
Alexandria, VA | Re: First place You didn't like my first answer, so I attempted to give you a more "politically correct" one  | |
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