Rural Carriers Quickly Embracing Fiber > What happened to big telco/cable blocking this??

reply to Romney2012

Re: What happened to big telco/cable blocking this??

Correction: the co-ops are the only ones with service in the exchange. There are plenty of multi-exchange co-ops. Which is the annoying thing about co-ops; many of them have ridiculously small local calling areas. But that's what internet/VoIP are for You just won't get a local number.

depends on what state you are in as far as a getting a local number with VoIP ask TWC that. They sued their way into the market and was granted local DIDs in many markets around the country. as far as Internet goes you're usually stuck having the co-op as your ONLY HSI provider meaning, now you pay out the ass. »www.smta.cc/dsl.htm The prices and speeds offered haven't changed nor will ever change since the Telco Co-Op also owns the cable company. And to top if all off...if your service stops working- ie even modem problems, they charge you to fix it!

Talk about an area that needs a WiMax provider.
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www.two-pugs.com www.2pugs.etsy.com

I'll take low-speed high-priced DSL over satellite. That said, if the economics work out it's a matter of time before competition comes in ad makes things better.

competition in these markets? Are you kidding me? These areas only have phone service because of the Co-Op. The only customers they have DO NOT have a choice and never will. Non-Profits are NOT allowed to sell to a For Profit company so that is out of the question for many of these customers ever getting anything. Nobody is going to spend the money to run a fiber line out into some field 50miles from their "service area" to service 200 customers. Not counting the money it would cost to build out the network, etc.
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www.two-pugs.com www.2pugs.etsy.com

That's why I said "if the economics work out." If the co-op is in an area that truly is remote/unprofitable, you may not see competition for communications for another twenty years. If on the other hand they're a wireless hop (or two) away from somebody's fiber network an enterprising WISP could come in with AirMax and provide service. If the baseline is 768k DSL for $50 per month with no upgrades available, you can compete even with two T1s.

That said, there are co-ops in these areas because nobody wanted to wire them, if the reason being that someone has to think on a 30-year time scale before the areas are close to profitable. In that case you probably have a natural monopoly, and the best thing to do is to try and vote someone effective into the cooperative presidency.