JohnSJ
join:2004-08-14
Lafayette, LA
| reply to junior70
Re: What a crock!
It makes me crazy to keep hearing the silly idea that cities regulate telecos (or cablecos).This is supposed to evoke the vision of big mean government picking on poor little free enterprise company. What a crock! This BellSouth International Mega Corp with an income to rival medium-sized countries beating on Lafayette. Come on.
The truth of regulation is that the Telecos are given a free ride to use local property (aka rights-of-way) by federal law. There is some state-level regulation but the idea that the city of Lafayette regulates BellSouth in any real way is laughable. And any telco rep should know that. It's the PSC, not the village of Anacoco, that regulates BellSouth in Louisiana. (Insofar as BellSouth is regulated at all,)
Just for the record, the cabelcos aren't "regulated" by the cities either. Cablecos enter into contracts to use city property, the above mentioned rights of way, in exchange for money and services. |
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ricep5
Premium
join:2000-08-07
Jacksonville, FL
 ·AT&T Southeast
 ·AT&T CallVantage
·VoicePulse
 ·Comcast Formerly ..
| reply to junior70
"where did the city come up with the money for the Fiber network..our taxes and now they will charge you to use that fiber that you paid for already"
Wrong Junior.
The selling of bonds pays for the network, not taxes. Only subscriber revenue pays for those bonds. If a taxpayer didn't want to subscribe, they wouldn't owe a thing. Even if the thing went completely bust, the bonds could be sold to a 3rd party where they could be the owner/operator or the assets sold to pay off bondholders.
As the earlier post said, this is a clear case of "regulatory capitalism" |
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tdaigle
join:2001-03-27
Youngsville, LA
| reply to junior70
I'm a resident of the city. We had a city wide vote on a proposal to issue normal everyday municipal bonds to pay for the project. The fiber and system WILL not be paid with TAX money. The citizens approved by a democratic city vote. The citizens voted YES by an overwhelming number for the proposal.
How can Bellsouth and Cable companies say the offering of Fiber to the home by the City of Lafayette is not legal. WE voted to have the process of selling the bonds and starting the infrastructure building of the system. I, a citizen of Lafayette, voted for the bond sales for the project, as did many others. Now Bell-Going-South Chicken you know what, is tying up my tax money by filing bogus and frivolous lawsuits. MY City Representatives are not going to sit back and let BellSouth and Cox tell the citizens/taxpayers on OUR City what we can and cannot do with our government and money!
As mentioned before, Bellsouth and Cox are using such tactics because they ARE scared of losing their MONOPOLY in our city. They would actually have to start spending money to upgrade services with every damn price increase they impose every year without no addition product upgrades....
This subject makes me furious!!!!!1 Urrrrrrrgggh!!!! |
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damonlab
Premium
join:2001-05-02
Detroit, MI
clubs:  | reply to junior70
Our taxes paid to subsidize all of those telco connections. I am sure it is easy for telcos to keep a profit margin doing business like that. |
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junior70
join:2006-01-03
Anacoco, LA
| reply to Derch
Hey guys I work for a Telco so here is the other side...How can a regulated company compete with the entity regulating it? Telcos are regulated by government. Also look at it like this, where did the city come up with the money for the Fiber network..our taxes and now they will charge you to use that fiber that you paid for already. I am sure it is easy to keep a profit margin doing business like that. |
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