2 ms·

Take away the government intervention and you take away the property easements that allow utilities to put up poles and run wires through yards, etc, to get to

Take away the government intervention and you take away the property easements that allow utilities to put up poles and run wires through yards, etc, to get to all the houses. Good luck with your "let everyone run their tiny wires wherever without the government being involved" plan. You've heard of NIMBYism, right? How many times do you think you'll be allowed to rip up the street?

smolder 6y ago
In countries that are very light on regulation there (I think I recall Brazil having this) you'll see messes of Ethernet hanging around, with dead cables still present. Unsurprisingly, they do provide a lot of bandwidth for a small price, comparitively.
- takeda 6y ago
  That's also how Romania is (or at least was) one of countries with fast and cheap internet. It started with the government telco not being interested in Internet. So people started running Ethernet cables, first to neighbors, then to other buildings. It started as having local networks to share files. Eventually those network got connected to Internet. If the price or quality of service provided is not satisfactory they can switch to another ISP. The bad part as you said is the huge number of ugly looking wires[1] [1] https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo-many-internet-cables-on-lamp-post-in-bucharest-romania-36410414.html https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo-many-internet-cables-on-la...
hakfoo 6y ago
I've been surprised there's been nobody acquiring legacy telcos just for their easements. The existing POTS and similar infrastructure are probably worth less now as a going business than if you were to just rip out all the copper and sell it for scrap. On the other hand, they still have pre-negotiated entry into every house and business in town, and the conduit already sunk. It would probably be cheaper, and certainly faster, to buy a firm like Frontier than to negotiate a comparable footprint from scratch. I suspect there's some significant legal continuity-of-service obligations that poison the proposal.

smolder 6y ago

In countries that are very light on regulation there (I think I recall Brazil having this) you'll see messes of Ethernet hanging around, with dead cables still present. Unsurprisingly, they do provide a lot of bandwidth for a small price, comparitively.

takeda 6y ago
That's also how Romania is (or at least was) one of countries with fast and cheap internet. It started with the government telco not being interested in Internet. So people started running Ethernet cables, first to neighbors, then to other buildings. It started as having local networks to share files. Eventually those network got connected to Internet. If the price or quality of service provided is not satisfactory they can switch to another ISP. The bad part as you said is the huge number of ugly looking wires[1] [1] https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo-many-internet-cables-on-lamp-post-in-bucharest-romania-36410414.html https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo-many-internet-cables-on-la...

hakfoo 6y ago

I've been surprised there's been nobody acquiring legacy telcos just for their easements. The existing POTS and similar infrastructure are probably worth less now as a going business than if you were to just rip out all the copper and sell it for scrap. On the other hand, they still have pre-negotiated entry into every house and business in town, and the conduit already sunk. It would probably be cheaper, and certainly faster, to buy a firm like Frontier than to negotiate a comparable footprint from scratch. I suspect there's some significant legal continuity-of-service obligations that poison the proposal.