3 ms·
I digress. In India, my local ISP owns the last mile and I pay approximately 14 USD each for two lines of symmetric and unlimited 100 Mbps. ISPs can own the la
by inapis 8y ago
I digress. In India, my local ISP owns the last mile and I pay approximately 14 USD each for two lines of symmetric and unlimited 100 Mbps.
ISPs can own the last mile. All you need is extensive competiton.
I went from paying $100(4M/250GB) to $50(20M/500G) to $30(50M/UL) to the current $15 (100M/UL). The prices decreased as more players entered the market. Of course, India doesn’t have excellent internet infrastructure available nationally but you really don’t need public ownership of last mile to make a difference. Just don’t let the ISPs form any kind of a cartel.
- lambdadmitry 8y agoSo I am, too, from a country where internet is (was) great while ISPs own the last mile (Russia). It seems there are two prerequisites for that: 1. Low level of regulation (i.e. lawlessness) so small ISPs can just string cables in the air without any licensing 2. Relatively young infrastructure Both of those aren't true for most developed countries. And even if it's not (Russia isn't), at some point market dynamics inevitably lead to monopoly. Most local competing ISPs are forced out of the market recently by state-sponsored mega-ISP that controls uplinks and finally went for last mile, too. As you can guess, the quality went down, while the prices went up. You can't cheat the market forces unless you eliminate the market. Physical fiber is an amazing moat, there is no way how upstart ISPs can be price-competitive while duplicating an already existing network.
- zzzcpan 8y agoIn Russia it's not market forces that push for internet access monopolization, but the government, as it wants Chinese-style mass surveillance and censorship.