5 ms·

Serious question - are there other ways to make competition "legal" again? State and local law on this matter favors monopolies.

by ruffrey 10y ago

jessaustin 10y ago
I think a few state legislators have to be caught enjoying excessive telco/cableco bribery (e.g. "factfinding" junkets, jobs for relatives, etc.), and then they have to lose reelection over those misdeeds, in order for their legislative colleagues to perceive the opportunity that exists to help their constituents.
- socialist_coder 10y ago
  More and more unlikely to happen now that local newspapers and tv are no longer paying for investigative journalism. It's click bait all the way, and a story about local bribery is just not bringing in the clicks. As the creator of The Wire recently said, it's a great time to be a corrupt state or city politician.
  - ethbro 10y ago
    I feel like pre-1870s America would have been pretty good too, considering you could flat out buy an NYPD position, among other things. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._Civil_Service_Reform https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._Civil_Service_Reform
ryao 10y ago
Get the laws overturned through the democratic process. It is easier than trying to get the unelected bureaucrats at the FCC to stop doing stupid things like requiring radios use proprietary microcode (this is why ath10k's radios require microcode) or more recently, tightening rules on how people can adjust radio parameters due to a few people who did stupid things. They are the reason why Asus, TP-Link and others were locking down routers and rather than reverse their mistake, they are playing whack a mole trying to coerce companies to not take the easy road in complying with their requirements. It is easier to elect someone else into the local and state governments than to convince the FCC to fix things when it messes up.
koolba 10y ago
Maybe offer broadband to people in the state next to yours. An "internet swap" between towns. Then it'd be under federal jurisdiction rather than state. This would probably only work for towns close to the border and at best would demonstrate how stupid the legal landscape for competitive internet access has become.
rayiner 10y ago
Pass a federal ban on municipalities imposing build-out requirements. That's the #1 thing preventing the 1996 deregulation from being effective. If a fiber provider could walk into New York, Philadelphia, or San Francisco, and wire-up lucrative pockets of the city and steal the local incumbent's lunch, the whole industry would look totally different. It would also help to ban municipalities from requiring franchise licenses to offer video service over their wires. At least until cord-cutting is more advanced, double-play packages are critical to the profitability of services like Google Fiber and FiOS. Municipalities tend to impose onerous terms on the acquisition of video licenses which make it unattractive for competitors to enter a market. It's not like competition doesn't exist anywhere. Low-regulation southern cities like Atlanta and Austin are enjoying multiple providers offering gigabit service.[1] The only reason the same isn't happening in New York or San Francisco is the local government. [1] I mean, just look at the map of Google Fiber cities: https://fiber.google.com/newcities https://fiber.google.com/newcities.
- mjevans 10y ago
  The most apt comparison isn't actually possible. The 'last mile' networks are similar in nature to roadways; a service that is a natural monopoly and best supported through government and local community working together. Meanwhile, cars (computers) and gas ('long distance' interconnect) are things that best compete on top of that local natural monopoly network. You should have your choice of ISPs and other data services selling you their content across the local mesh network.
  - rayiner 10y ago
    It's not actually that much work to run a few sets of fiber along existing utility poles or conduits (which are mostly owned by electric utilities). We're not talking about nuclear reactors here.
    - tgb 10y ago
      Are they run on utility poles? I always think of them as buried, but can't find any information either way.
mannykannot 10y ago
If all else fails, there is the ballot box (figuratively speaking, these days.)

Serious question - are there other ways to make competition "legal" again? State and local law on this matter favors monopolies.

by ruffrey 10y ago

Serious question - are there other ways to make competition "legal" again? State and local law on this matter favors monopolies.

jessaustin 10y ago

I think a few state legislators have to be caught enjoying excessive telco/cableco bribery (e.g. "factfinding" junkets, jobs for relatives, etc.), and then they have to lose reelection over those misdeeds, in order for their legislative colleagues to perceive the opportunity that exists to help their constituents.

socialist_coder 10y ago
More and more unlikely to happen now that local newspapers and tv are no longer paying for investigative journalism. It's click bait all the way, and a story about local bribery is just not bringing in the clicks. As the creator of The Wire recently said, it's a great time to be a corrupt state or city politician.
- ethbro 10y ago
  I feel like pre-1870s America would have been pretty good too, considering you could flat out buy an NYPD position, among other things. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._Civil_Service_Reform https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._Civil_Service_Reform

ryao 10y ago

Get the laws overturned through the democratic process. It is easier than trying to get the unelected bureaucrats at the FCC to stop doing stupid things like requiring radios use proprietary microcode (this is why ath10k's radios require microcode) or more recently, tightening rules on how people can adjust radio parameters due to a few people who did stupid things. They are the reason why Asus, TP-Link and others were locking down routers and rather than reverse their mistake, they are playing whack a mole trying to coerce companies to not take the easy road in complying with their requirements. It is easier to elect someone else into the local and state governments than to convince the FCC to fix things when it messes up.

koolba 10y ago

Maybe offer broadband to people in the state next to yours. An "internet swap" between towns. Then it'd be under federal jurisdiction rather than state. This would probably only work for towns close to the border and at best would demonstrate how stupid the legal landscape for competitive internet access has become.

rayiner 10y ago

Pass a federal ban on municipalities imposing build-out requirements. That's the #1 thing preventing the 1996 deregulation from being effective. If a fiber provider could walk into New York, Philadelphia, or San Francisco, and wire-up lucrative pockets of the city and steal the local incumbent's lunch, the whole industry would look totally different. It would also help to ban municipalities from requiring franchise licenses to offer video service over their wires. At least until cord-cutting is more advanced, double-play packages are critical to the profitability of services like Google Fiber and FiOS. Municipalities tend to impose onerous terms on the acquisition of video licenses which make it unattractive for competitors to enter a market. It's not like competition doesn't exist anywhere. Low-regulation southern cities like Atlanta and Austin are enjoying multiple providers offering gigabit service.[1] The only reason the same isn't happening in New York or San Francisco is the local government. [1] I mean, just look at the map of Google Fiber cities: https://fiber.google.com/newcities https://fiber.google.com/newcities.

mjevans 10y ago
The most apt comparison isn't actually possible. The 'last mile' networks are similar in nature to roadways; a service that is a natural monopoly and best supported through government and local community working together. Meanwhile, cars (computers) and gas ('long distance' interconnect) are things that best compete on top of that local natural monopoly network. You should have your choice of ISPs and other data services selling you their content across the local mesh network.
- rayiner 10y ago
  It's not actually that much work to run a few sets of fiber along existing utility poles or conduits (which are mostly owned by electric utilities). We're not talking about nuclear reactors here.
  - tgb 10y ago
    Are they run on utility poles? I always think of them as buried, but can't find any information either way.

mannykannot 10y ago

If all else fails, there is the ballot box (figuratively speaking, these days.)