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Then some entity somewhere will decide to get off its ass and offer internet service the way PG&E supplies power -- with no conditions. If you're an ISP then yo
by sabat 16y ago
Then some entity somewhere will decide to get off its ass and offer internet service the way PG&E supplies power -- with no conditions. If you're an ISP then you have no business competing with other internet services; it's time to spin off a new company.
- mattmaroon 16y agoI don't disagree with that in principle, but I'm confident it won't happen in the US. (I don't know enough about Canada to have an opinion.) Cable companies and telcos won't willingly give up their internet business, especially since a spun off ISP with large amounts of bandwidth to their customers' homes could trivially compete with them. They have a lot of lobbying power and they'll use it to fight that. Whenever you're dealing with infrastructure like roads or utility lines, progress moves at the speed of half-frozen molasses even when the existing stakeholders are on board, and it takes very little for them to halt it entirely. Instead what they'll likely do is find ways to align their interests with Netflix's. They'll institute bandwidth caps as a first measure. Then they'll perhaps sell you the Netflix service with bandwidth for some monthly fee that gives them both a cut.
- sabat 16y agoThe less optimistic part of me agrees with you but hopes that in the future this will somehow turn out to be wrong.
- mattmaroon 16y agoYeah I hope so too, in fact I often find myself thinking something is true and hoping I'm wrong. But as a betting man, when it comes to the intersection of government and enterprise you have to give me pretty good odds for me to wager on the side of the consumer. The good news is, in 5-10 years wireless internet will bring to ISPs the sort of competition that satellite TV has brought to cable I think.