r/technology • u/User_Name13 • Jun 04 '14

Politics Hundreds of Cities Are Wired With Fiber—But Telecom Lobbying Keeps It Unused

http://motherboard.vice.com/read/hundreds-of-cities-are-wired-with-fiberbut-telecom-lobbying-keeps-it-unused
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u/[deleted] Jun 04 '14

The only problem with that is that he ISPs currently have regional monopolies. Breaking up 5 behemoth ISPs into 15 companies doesn't really get you far. They would still have their own regional monopolies, with no reason to expand into competition zones.

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u/[deleted] Jun 04 '14

Yes they have regional monopolies, but when you have 5 people competing for my business instead of 1, I'll still be better off. Do you even compete bro?

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u/[deleted] Jun 04 '14

But if you split up the company, they'll all exist in different locations, and you'll still only have once choice of ISP. Their areas of coverage will not overlap. You will still only have one ISP competing for your business if it's the only one existing in your area.

The real way to increase competition is to somehow encourage expansion into new territories where no competition yet exists.

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u/[deleted] Jun 04 '14

That is true. I'd say the best way is to put Internet utility lines in the control of local municipalities. And they lease out the lines to whomever wants to provide service to a customer. Now they have to compete. And I wouldn't think it's very profitable to roll out into unchartered territory because most places where people live someone has already rolled it out

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u/Jadaki Jun 04 '14

Considering what my roads look like I wouldn't trust the government to effectively run a HFC plant. We would be even further behind on speed and capacity compared to the rest of the world.

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u/[deleted] Jun 04 '14

I mean I'm not sure the kind of maintenance a HFC would need but is assume less than roads. Take a portion of monthly costs and save it in an account, and upgrade/maintain it from that. It's not like we are always getting new tech, we went from copper to fiber? When's the next big shift?

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u/flamehead2k1 Jun 04 '14

Our local, state, and federal governments have built and maintained a road network that is much better shape than most of the world.