Re: Will wholesale-only muni actually bring the boys to your yard?

[William Herrin <bill () herrin us>]

On Tue, Jan 29, 2013 at 7:39 PM, Jay Ashworth <jra () baylink com> wrote:
> ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "Jean-Francois Mezei" <jfmezei_nanog () vaxination ca>
>
> > It is in fact important for a government (municipal, state/privince or
> > federal) to stay at a last mile layer 2 service with no retail
> > offering. Wholesale only.
> >
> > Not only is the last mile competitively neutral because it is not
> > involved in retail, but it them invites competition by allowing many
> > service providers to provide retail services over the last mile
> > network.

As long as they support open peering they can probably operate at
layer 3 without harm. Tough to pitch a muni on spending tax revenue
for something that's not a complete product usable directly by the
taxpayers.


> It rings true to me, in general, and I would go that way... but there is
> a sting in that tail: Can I reasonably expect that Road Runner will in fact
> be technically equipped and inclined to meet me to get my residents as
> subscribers?  Especially if they're already built HFC in much to all of
> my municipality?

Not Road Runner, no. What you've done, if you've done it right, is
returned being an ISP to an ease-of-entry business like it was back in
the dialup days. That's where *small* business plays, offering
customized services where small amounts of high-margin money can be
had meeting needs that a high-volume commodity player can't handle.

Regards,
Bill Herrin


-- 
William D. Herrin ................ herrin () dirtside com  bill () herrin us
3005 Crane Dr. ...................... Web: <http://bill.herrin.us/>
Falls Church, VA 22042-3004