DaveO
join:2001-09-05
Easley, SC | No Choice I don't think we have a choice but to support some kind of community broadband project if we're going to be competitive with other nations. We're already falling way behind. Even Romania has far faster broadband than we do.
We've been sitting around waiting for the "free market to work" for a few decades now. It worked in the dial-up Internet days, but not now. Back then dial-up ISPs had to directly compete with others for customers. Now you're lucky if you even have two choices between your cable ISP monopoly and DSL. Most areas only have cable. Some have nothing.
It seems like we need to build fiber optic out to all neighborhoods and let multiple ISPs compete to connect customers for the "last mile." |
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Sammer
join:2005-12-22
Canonsburg, PA
1 edit | said by DaveO:It seems like we need to build fiber optic out to all neighborhoods and let multiple ISPs compete to connect customers for the "last mile."
Considering that would cost a lot less in current (adjusted for inflation) dollars than building the Interstate Highway System it would be a no-brainer if our crony capitalist controlled federal government wasn't over $15 Trillion in debt.
You may hear some politicians say we need to reign in the entitlement spending that helps actual people but how many politicians are doing anything about the complete waste of crony capitalism and corporate welfare.
For all those here who are saying private businesses shouldn't have to compete against government, thousands of honest U. S. businesses are competing everyday with crony capitalism and corporate welfare and it's usually the people who make the most noise about supporting the private sector who support crony capitalism the most. |
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That's the key, dialup by nature had ample competition and it worked. Whereas, broadband like wireless is inherently limited. |
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scross
join:2002-09-13
Cordova, TN | reply to DaveO
You really should just give up on the whole notion that such a thing as a "free market" actually even exists these days. I gave up on the idea ages ago. Think about it a bit and I expect that you'll come to the same conclusion. |
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Reviews:
 ·Callcentric
| The free market has to be nurtured and promoted, it cannot survive on its own. This is the reason so many other developed and advanced economies have agencies to ensure this is the case and prevent monopolies and duopolies. This is also the reason that the GOP is so against the equivalent consumer protection agencies here.
Why do you think we had hundreds of years of aristocrats, kings, and Queens. We indeed had to fight for our voice and 'free'-dom.
It's just amazing that the very same people who beat on about liberty, freedom, and free markets, fail to grasp that we are becoming the exact same plutocratic oligarch of pre-1778. Instead of the monarchy, we now hove super pacs and the 1%. |
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KearnstdElf WizardPremium
join:2002-01-22
Mullica Hill, NJ | reply to DaveO
Maybe the government should run fiber to every home but make it open. Making it open would allow for more than one bandwidth provider.
In a way not to different than the roads, the government builds them but I choose which brand of car to take down them. I choose between UPS, Fedex or USPS when I need a package sent.
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[65 Arcanist]Filan(High Elf) Zone: Broadband Reports |
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scross
join:2002-09-13
Cordova, TN | Excellent idea, and exactly what I would expect the government to do. But when they tried to build this out in Memphis a decade or two ago, the cable company (Time Warner back then, Comcast today), which could have made great use of this network, instead fought it tooth and nail, and eventually prevailed. They were afraid that they might face (gasp!) "competition", which was of course "unfair" - and indeed, this was one of the reasons people wanted it built, in order to have an option other than much-hated Time Warner.
Well, TW won the battle but lost the war, because shortly afterwards Dish Network and DirecTV use just exploded in this area (I canceled TW and went with DirecTV myself), and the local TW franchise converted over to Comcast - still the cable company, but not hated so much locally, and apparently a bit more consumer-friendly. Today they are the underdog of sorts: satellite is still huge, with AT&T U-verse being the big guy on the ground, so if such an endeavor were proposed again I would expect AT&T to fight it, much as they are currently doing elsewhere. |
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Im glad the similar bill in Georgia SB 313 was able to be killed. Atleast for now. South Carolians need to contact their representatives and their local news media and news papers to report this issue. |
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DaveO
join:2001-09-05
Easley, SC | reply to Kearnstd
I've also thought about that idea to have the government build the fiber to every home and business and partner with multiple ISPs, but then what do the ISPs provide if the government is maintaining the whole fiber infrastructure? |
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