richardpor
Fur it up
join:2003-04-19
Portland, OR
| Time to Thow In the towel.
One of the problems with any form of direct democracy is the people tend to vote themselves more benefits from the public trough.
Do not get me wrong I do not like the creation of a government monopoly in what should be a private business, but there should be a way for Bell South revoke any conditions of the franchising agreement and sue for breach of contact and to recover any cost and taxes and to terminate at will any services in Lafayette. |
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pnh102
Reptiles Are Cuddly And Pretty
Premium
join:2002-05-02
Mount Airy, MD
 ·Comcast
| said by richardpor  :One of the problems with any form of direct democracy is the people tend to vote themselves more benefits from the public trough. You're absolutely right here... Anyone who wants to rob Peter to pay Paul will always have the support of Paul.
However, if BS had bothered to offer upgraded services as a result of customer dissatisfaction in Lafayette, a vote might not have even happened. I am sure that once Verizon Fios and whatever other offerings cable companies throw at their customers will keep most of them happy enough to not opt for the socialist broadband route.
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Rove / Rumsfeld 2008! |
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calvoiper
join:2003-03-31
Belvedere Tiburon, CA
| reply to richardpor
said by richardpor :...there should be a way for Bell South revoke any conditions of the franchising agreement and sue for breach of contact and to recover any cost and taxes and to terminate at will any services in Lafayette. Say what? The franchise agreement doesn't protect BS from competition--if it did, the cable guys couldn't get into the business. Besides, even those franchise agreements that pretended to grant total monopolies were tossed out by the Telecom Act of '96.
And yes, a few telcos pushed the idea that they were "entitled" to get "compensation" for the loss of their "contracted monopoly". They uniformly lost their arguments because there is no protectable property interest in government policies UNLESS they are specifically spelled out in contracts, which Bell monopolies never were.
And as for "terminating service at will", there is a little non-franchise matter of state public utility statutes to worry about, but I realize such concerns get in the way of a serious hissy fit, which seems to be what you advocate for BS to undertake....
calvoiper
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VoIP--the death knell of remaining voice monopolies! |
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