4 ms·

I am not confused, but I do think that we are working from different definitions of last-mile. Your definition of last-mile is a fine and probably more literal

I am not confused, but I do think that we are working from different definitions of last-mile. Your definition of last-mile is a fine and probably more literal one, but I don't think it's very useful when talking about municipal last-mile networks. If the municipal network only extended from the service-drop to the home then each ISP would still need lines run all through the city. In my case for example the 'last-mile' fiber access network has a pedestal in the street every few blocks across several cities - it's a very large network. The ISPs connect at the edges of that network and provide IP to any home connected to it. Also, fwiw it certainly is possible for a problem at the last mile even in your definition to cause a site to be inaccessible for you and not others. A bad route or a frame size problem for example can cause exactly that. Consider for example the recent problems with AT&T and 1.1.1.1 - AT&T customers couldn't use that site while others could and it was all because of a last-mile problem.

Retric 8y ago
> In my case for example the 'last-mile' fiber access network has a pedestal in the street every few blocks across several cities - it's a very large network. The ISPs connect at the edges of that network and provide IP to any home connected to it. That network is effectively a full ISP excluding billing as it's connecting to 1000's of homes and then connecting to a few networks from that point. I understand it seems like a reasonable alternative, but think of something closer to this. Connecting to every single one of those pedestal's would take ~1-3% of the wire as going to every home. If say 10 networks did it then that's not all that much overhead compared to 2 separate last mile networks. The other approach would be to have say 2-5 networks that went to every box and then each ISP would have a device in those locations which would connect on one or more of those networks. In either of those 2 cases the ISP's would have full control over how their customers see the internet, without nearly the wiring of having N full networks.

Retric 8y ago

> In my case for example the 'last-mile' fiber access network has a pedestal in the street every few blocks across several cities - it's a very large network. The ISPs connect at the edges of that network and provide IP to any home connected to it. That network is effectively a full ISP excluding billing as it's connecting to 1000's of homes and then connecting to a few networks from that point. I understand it seems like a reasonable alternative, but think of something closer to this. Connecting to every single one of those pedestal's would take ~1-3% of the wire as going to every home. If say 10 networks did it then that's not all that much overhead compared to 2 separate last mile networks. The other approach would be to have say 2-5 networks that went to every box and then each ISP would have a device in those locations which would connect on one or more of those networks. In either of those 2 cases the ISP's would have full control over how their customers see the internet, without nearly the wiring of having N full networks.