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> I personally think that a hybrid system is best. The government should build and maintain the physical infrastructure like fiber and cell towers, and private

by samtho 2y ago

> I personally think that a hybrid system is best. The government should build and maintain the physical infrastructure like fiber and cell towers, and private industry should be able to access this infra at cost + a small fixed markup and provide all other needed equipment and services on top of that infra. I fully agree and am on board with this. I liken this to a “public roads” approach and (in applicable countries) a nationalized rail system. So many businesses are successful operating on publicly-owned infrastructure without the burden of maintenance. However, if everyone had to maintain their own infra like that, this same burden creates a high barrier to entry for new companies, promoting a monopoly, which leads to a situation where there is non need to compete or innovate: Build once, bill forever. In my city, Sacramento, the collectively owned power company (SMUD) owns all the power poles and regularly sells space on them for telecom with little restriction. For internet service, I have the option of 2 different FTTH ISPs, 2 DOCSIS ISPs, and 1 DSL ISP (which is 2-3 more options than many people have). Not perfect, but it does mean there is healthy competition and customer choice. I just wish SMUD would run their own PON and sell bandwidth on it, we would then see a number of ISPs pop up and ISP-adjacent innovation utilizing this (hypothetical) city-wide PON as a platform.

datascienced 2y ago
UK has a national grid serving 67m people! That should be how it is done. I think they might own the last mile. I think Australia might be the same or at least per state. They do own the last mile, AusGrid comes and repairs power poles and has a map of outages online. Lebanon is the other extreme where you just need your own generator because the infra is localized and unreliable.
- defrost 2y ago
  Australia has traditionally had government led national infrastructure to achieve span and system uniformity, followed on by waves of privatisation to varying degrees - for roads, power, telecommunications, etc. It's a large (mainland USA in area equivilant) area with sparse dense pockets of population. W.Australia has a fully independent power grid, I suspect the Northern Territory is the same. The East Coast (where the vast majority of population resides) has inter connected State grids .. including (recently) Tasmania, an island state with a great deal of hydro electricity and gas reserves. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basslink https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basslink There's a federal road network, lesser roads are state roads, smaller roads are managed by local councils.
  - paranoidrobot 2y ago
    On Tas/Basslink: There's quite a bit of Wind generation, too - and a whole lot of capacity for more, if the windfarms can get approval. (Roadblocks from local communities) There's a project to duplicate basslink (500MW HVCD) - it was initially planned as 2x 750MW cables, but the three governments involved wouldn't fully agree on the increased price. Which IMO is insane because it'll be needed. There's a dashboard showing how the various states interlink and export power between themselves[1]. [1] https://aemo.com.au/en/energy-systems/electricity/national-electricity-market-nem/data-nem/data-dashboard-nem https://aemo.com.au/en/energy-systems/electricity/national-e...

by samtho 2y ago

datascienced 2y ago

UK has a national grid serving 67m people! That should be how it is done. I think they might own the last mile. I think Australia might be the same or at least per state. They do own the last mile, AusGrid comes and repairs power poles and has a map of outages online. Lebanon is the other extreme where you just need your own generator because the infra is localized and unreliable.

defrost 2y ago
Australia has traditionally had government led national infrastructure to achieve span and system uniformity, followed on by waves of privatisation to varying degrees - for roads, power, telecommunications, etc. It's a large (mainland USA in area equivilant) area with sparse dense pockets of population. W.Australia has a fully independent power grid, I suspect the Northern Territory is the same. The East Coast (where the vast majority of population resides) has inter connected State grids .. including (recently) Tasmania, an island state with a great deal of hydro electricity and gas reserves. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basslink https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basslink There's a federal road network, lesser roads are state roads, smaller roads are managed by local councils.
- paranoidrobot 2y ago
  On Tas/Basslink: There's quite a bit of Wind generation, too - and a whole lot of capacity for more, if the windfarms can get approval. (Roadblocks from local communities) There's a project to duplicate basslink (500MW HVCD) - it was initially planned as 2x 750MW cables, but the three governments involved wouldn't fully agree on the increased price. Which IMO is insane because it'll be needed. There's a dashboard showing how the various states interlink and export power between themselves[1]. [1] https://aemo.com.au/en/energy-systems/electricity/national-electricity-market-nem/data-nem/data-dashboard-nem https://aemo.com.au/en/energy-systems/electricity/national-e...