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I thought the european deregulation of the last mile was only possible because in large part it was quasi-governmental telecoms which owned the last mile infras
by dv_dt 10y ago
I thought the european deregulation of the last mile was only possible because in large part it was quasi-governmental telecoms which owned the last mile infrastructure - so mostly it was governments ordering themselves to setup a competitive market. In the US, most last mile infrastructure is privately owned and you would have a big fight with those private owners (which generally are corporations that start to legislatively meddle when cities try to do things like put in their own last mile infrastructure). Though I agree, public access (and preferably ownership) of the last mile seems like the best structural and low regulation way to maintain a competitive market for internet access.
- rashkov 10y agoI don't have actual numbers on this, but it seems like most of the last-mile infrastructure was paid for using government subsidies. Essentially our congress handed out natural monopolies to these telecoms, subsidized by the taxpayer. Assuming that's true, then I would be okay with the government taking the last mile back from the private owners, or force them to open it up to competition while allowing them to charge a small usage fee.