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Internet hosting doesn’t have as strong a geologic component though. Power and water are utilities because they are “natural monopolies”. UPS and FedEx are not

• blamestross 6y ago
  geologic component isn't relevant. In our current legal system, the only way to ensure equal access to a service is via regulation as a public utility.
  • chillacy 6y ago
    > the only way to ensure equal access to a service is via regulation as a public utility Right, but afaik the reason water/power/etc are made public utilities is because they are natural monopolies: > Public utilities, the companies that have traditionally provided water and electrical service across much of the United States, are leading examples of natural monopoly. It would make little sense to argue that a local water company should be broken up into several competing companies, each with its own separate set of pipes and water supplies. Installing four or five identical sets of pipes under a city, one for each water company, so that each household could choose its own water provider, would be terribly costly. The same argument applies to the idea of having many competing companies for delivering electricity to homes, each with its own set of wires. Before the advent of wireless phones, the argument also applied to the idea of many different phone companies, each with its own set of phone wires running through the neighborhood. https://opentextbc.ca/principlesofeconomics/chapter/11-3-regulating-natural-monopolies/ https://opentextbc.ca/principlesofeconomics/chapter/11-3-reg... This same is harder to say for AWS. The physical wires? Yes, but your hosting provider? It's not as clear cut.