said by openbox9:Eighty-nine percent of survey respondents indicated they face competition in the provision of advanced services from at least one other service provider in some portion of their service area. By comparison, only 66% of respondents to the 2003 survey indicated they faced competition and only 43% in the 1999 survey.
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The typical respondent competes with one national ISP, two WISPs and one cable company. Other competitors mentioned include electric utilities, local ISPs and neighboring cooperatives. Fifty-three percent of those respondents facing competition indicated that their competitors were serving only the cities and towns in their service areas, while 47% said that competitors were serving customers throughout their service area.
So competition does appear to be increasing. Also, competition doesn't just happen in urban environments.
Is cellular a WISP? Remember most rural areas have atleast 2 providers. The 2 800 mhz carriers (always 2 of them) were required to cover 2/3rd of square miles of each license area with coverage. The 1900 MHZ carriers were required to cover 2/3rd of the population of each license area.
