nanog mailing list archives
Re: Muni Fiber and Politics
From: William Herrin <bill () herrin us>
Date: Mon, 21 Jul 2014 14:38:47 -0400
On Mon, Jul 21, 2014 at 10:20 AM, Jay Ashworth <jra () baylink com> wrote:
Over the last decade, 19 states have made it illegal for municipalities to own fiber networks
Hi Jay, Everything government does, it does badly. Without exception. There are many things government does better than any private organization is likely to sustain, but even those things it does slowly and at an exorbitant price. Muni fiber is a competition killer. You can't beat city hall; once built it's not practical to compete, even with better service, so residents are stuck with only the overpriced (either directly or via taxes), usually underpowered and always one-size-fits-all network access which results. As an ISP I watched something similar happen in Altoona PA a decade and a half ago. It was a travesty. The only exception I see to this would be if localities were constrained to providing point to point and point to multipoint communications infrastructure within the locality on a reasonable and non-discriminatory basis. The competition that would foster on the services side might outweigh the damage on the infrastructure side. Like public roads facilitate efficient transportation and freight despite the cost and potholes, though that's an imperfect simile. Regards, Bill Herrin -- William Herrin ................ herrin () dirtside com bill () herrin us Owner, Dirtside Systems ......... Web: <http://www.dirtside.com/> Can I solve your unusual networking challenges?
Current thread:
- Re: Muni Fiber and Politics, (continued)
- Re: Muni Fiber and Politics Mark Tinka (Jul 29)
- Re: Muni Fiber and Politics Leo Bicknell (Jul 30)
- Re: Muni Fiber and Politics Mark Tinka (Jul 30)
- Re: Muni Fiber and Politics Måns Nilsson (Jul 31)
- Re: Muni Fiber and Politics Jason Iannone (Jul 21)
- Re: Muni Fiber and Politics William Herrin (Jul 21)
- Re: Muni Fiber and Politics Jay Ashworth (Jul 21)
- Re: Muni Fiber and Politics Owen DeLong (Jul 21)
- Re: Muni Fiber and Politics Matthew Kaufman (Jul 21)
- Re: Muni Fiber and Politics Mikael Abrahamsson (Jul 21)
- Re: Muni Fiber and Politics Hugo Slabbert (Jul 21)
- Re: Muni Fiber and Politics Andrew Gallo (Jul 21)
- Re: Muni Fiber and Politics Miles Fidelman (Jul 21)
- Re: Muni Fiber and Politics William Herrin (Jul 21)
- Re: Muni Fiber and Politics goemon (Jul 21)
- Re: Muni Fiber and Politics Miles Fidelman (Jul 21)
- Re: Muni Fiber and Politics Owen DeLong (Jul 21)