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The free market gives us those monopolies. Other companies could emerge and get the funding to build another set of infrastructure, but they don't.
by superuser2 11y ago
The free market gives us those monopolies. Other companies could emerge and get the funding to build another set of infrastructure, but they don't.
- ropiku 11y agoAs far as I know in many markets they can't, the monopolies were granted by cities. Comcast even sued some cities trying to build infrastructure: http://www.theverge.com/2015/5/1/8530403/chattanooga-comcast-fcc-high-speed-internet-gigabit http://www.theverge.com/2015/5/1/8530403/chattanooga-comcast...
- rdancer 11y agoIn a sense, yes. I would argue that the cabled infrastructure is not a natural monopoly at this stage of technology development, but the pre-existing regulatory framework and the local municipalities treated it as such. The effect was a market where local monopolies were bought and sold. Which leads to no free market for buying and selling last mile Internet access. To build a parallel tax-funded infrastructure like the fine article says, would be just silly in those monopoly markets (instead of enabling commercial competition first; not sure if New York in particular has any meaningful competition, so this may not apply there).
- spacecowboy_lon 11y agoLocal Loop Unbundeling is the answer.