Re: [Latest draft of Internet regulation bill]

[Owen DeLong <owen () delong com>]

--On November 14, 2005 11:04:46 AM -0500 Sean Donelan <sean () donelan com> 
wrote:

> On Mon, 14 Nov 2005, Blaine Christian wrote:
> > We are talking about an infrastructure that does not lend itself very
> > well to market forces.  In many places FFTH and/or DSL from a single
> > carrier are becoming the only options.  I would not count a 500ms
> > satellite hop as an option <grin>.
>
> The cable industry claims 97% of the households passed in the US.  Why
> don't you consider it an option?

Many would argue that ICP+ILEC == Aforementioned duopoly.

IOW, if the only choices are the local ILEC and the local Franchise Cable 
Operator
(Incumbant Cable Provider) then you still have a very limited set of market
forces that can be brought to bear.  True competition requires the ability
for multiple providers to enter into the market, including the creation
of new providers to seize opportunities being ignored by the existing ones.
If two companies can act as gatekeeper for the entire market in a given
area, that is not an environment where market forces carry much meaning.

Owen



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