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I disagree. I've seen firsthand the huge investment it takes to wire a neighborhood with underground fiber. A small company cannot do it. Okay, so what? Googl
by timtas 11y ago
I disagree.
I've seen firsthand the huge investment it takes to wire a neighborhood with underground fiber. A small company cannot do it. Okay, so what?
Google is offering free internet forever for a one time $300 construction fee which you can pay off over the course of a year. I'm buying gigabit plus premium TV package, 2TB 8-tuner DVR, etc, and my costs will be halved for a massively better product. If this is oligopoly, bring it on.
With state created monopolies, prices rise and quality stagnates or falls. I don't know anyone who would dispute that. But these so-called oligopolies constantly innovate and drive prices down and quality up. Apple is part of an oligopoly as are many other darling tech companies. The constantly innovate and drop prices. Even in the days of the so-called robber barons it was so. Standard Oil controlled 90% of the oil market for about 10 years, during which time the price of a barrel of kerosene fell something like 300%. [1]
[1] http://tomwoods.com/blog/beware-the-robber-barons-and-more-tales-of-capitalism/ http://tomwoods.com/blog/beware-the-robber-barons-and-more-t...
- loup-vaillant 11y ago> A small company cannot do it. Okay, so what? So, have the state (or city) build the damn last mile. It's a public service, just like electricity and water. (If it's not a public service, maybe it should be.) Then have the state get the fuck out by leasing the lines (or the bandwidth in the lines) at some price (preferably without bulk offers, which favour big providers). I bet prices would fall way faster with a scheme like this. Also, I'd be wary of Google being my ISP. They spy on me way too much already, I'd rather limit my interaction with them (I'm off Gmail, and use DuckDuckGo). Not to mention the obvious conflict of interest created by the vertical integration: they are ISP and content provider. To name one example, the temptation to make YouTube go smoother than Netflix is significant.