4 ms·

> The current vertical integration of internet providers impedes any new competition Wouldn't the government owning the service be the ultimate impediment to n

> The current vertical integration of internet providers impedes any new competition Wouldn't the government owning the service be the ultimate impediment to new competition? I'm not defending ISPs, but lets not too quickly throw them under the bus. Also, your casual throw-away comment: > Most services that lend themselves to a natural monopoly ... should be implemented as a publicly run infrastructure Requires the government forcibly taking over quite a few large companies. That's a weighty request, and would be exactly the opposite of what we should want to see in the world.

damptowel 10y ago
> Requires the government forcibly taking over quite a few large companies. That's a weighty request, and would be exactly the opposite of what we should want to see in the world. Yet this is exactly what happened in developed countries in the 20th century, now many of these are again privatized with the predictable loss of efficiency and increased bureaucracy (supporting frameworks, arbitrage, watchdogs, etc...). In my country the privatization of public transit and energy companies has been a total disaster. I remember when I could get things done without being pingponged between 12 different parties, things that used to take a day now take weeks.