| How can private sector companies compete with the government How can any private sector company compete with the government?
In the state of Maine stimulus money was granted to a partnership between The University of Maine and Great Works Internet to build a redundant middle mile... A REDUNDANT MIDDLE MILE WITH NO LAST MILE PROVISIONS in the project, except for using the last mile facilities of the ILEC and the few direct connections to money making cherry picked locations ....
The University of Maine is a state funded college allowed special privaliges by the Public Utilities Commission to use conduit runs and pole attachments for NOTHING. Again, this is a redundant middle mile to the one the ILEC already has in the proposed area. Once this project is completed the plan is to hand it over to the newly formed Maine Fiber Company, a privately held company to run and own.
Built by the University of Maine with special privaliges using taxpayer funded stimulus money to be run by a private sector company !!!! How wrong does that sound .....
If unregulated companies are allowed to continue to cherry pick the business districts and densely populated areas for regulated voice and unregulated broadband services... where will we go from here??? broadband is the bread and butter for any future communications company.
Business districts and densely populated areas is where the real money is made to make a healthy company that can build out and support Universal Services to the most expensive rural areas of any state. ILECS by law are forced to provide service to these most expensive rural areas. Do you see any CLEC building physical plant and running to provide these expensive rural last mile connections? Who will build and maintain the most critical last mile connection to the home when the ILEC can no longer turn a profit because of the cherry picking? the taxpayer...
If a company wants to be a provider of services... broadband or voice, they should pay the real costs of doing business, not be allowed to cherry pick and not be allowed to ride the back of another company.... I support broadband regulations that apply evenly to all that want to provide. |
