 MisManagerRuns With ScissorsPremium
join:2000-11-02
Reston, VA | Rethinking the problem My initial reaction was on par with most everyone else's reaction here - John McCain has lost his mind. However, as I look over the bill and his press release and floor speech, I'm seeing something different.
McCain is not trying to deregulate/reregulate/alternatively regulate the industry. This bill addresses the single most fundamental and pervasive roadblock in the effort to make broadband access more available.
Let's face it - the existing mechanism simply does not work. The ILECs have zero incentive to rapidly roll out xDSL broadband services. From their perspective, it's better to wait out the competition. Once the competition goes under from lack of revenue, the ILECs can then roll out broadband at their leisure. Close looks at the big ILECs show that this is exactly what is happening.
McCain's bill, it seems, aims to speed broadband availability by unshackling the ILECs from the current system. Given that ILEC dominance in this market is happening anyway, this only speeds up the endgame.
If McCain's bill is the last word on the subject, then he's not helping the industry in the long run, and he's certainly not fostering competition. If this is a step along the road, then I'm willing to wait it out and see what he proposes.
In the past, McCain has, IIRC, been vocal about the power of the ILECs and how they should be tamed. If he's changed his mind, that's truly unfortunate. If he hasn't, perhaps better news will come.
With this bill, in a few years (fewer than would be the case otherwise), the market will reduce to the ILECs and a handful of other major players. Perhaps the ILECs and these other majors will go after each other. If so, then good. If the market can be structured appropriately, that inter-ILEC competition might open doors for new players. Good also. That's my hope.
McCain's bill, as it stands, doesn't do anything except hasten the inevitable. I just hope it's a start, and not the end.
Eric
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Diplomacy is the art of letting someone else get your way. |
IPG0dPremium
join:2002-05-02
Stevenson, WA | Bullshit the lec's wait till little guys build broadband to the point of making a profit or at least breaking even...then it steps in squishs the mom and pop's and smaller broadband providers and takes over trust me i was one of them when i had more of the lec's lines leased than they were using they started on july 1st and shut me of july 1st anti trust means the gov trusts the big guy to give them more money than the small guy |
