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People really need to cool it with the 2024 buzzphrase "regulatory capture". I don't know which podcast, and I'm almost certain it is some dumbass podcast some

People really need to cool it with the 2024 buzzphrase "regulatory capture". I don't know which podcast, and I'm almost certain it is some dumbass podcast somewhere, is promulgating the phrase which has been popping up with ludicrous regularity in 2024 to describe every situation where someone is pissed off about something, but the primary reason people don't have 10gbps internet isn't regulatory capture, it is that the deployment costs are too high unless either subsidized by the government (as is the case in many parts of Europe and this instance) or there is a combination of high density and eager market. "20 minutes from Google's Headquarters" is San Jose. San Jose is served by over 20 ISPs offering services from wireless to 10-gig fiber depending on location. The locations aren't determined by "regulatory capture" they are determined by a cost-benefit analysis. You, yes you, can start your own ISP anywhere in the country, right now, today. Anywhere. Remember 20 years ago when NYC gave Verizon exclusive franchise rights and then everyone got upset that they didn't fulfill their end of the bargain? That's gone. Everywhere, it's gone. Anyone, including you, yes you, can get a permit to microtrench fiber to any building in NYC unless there is excess capacity already in which case the party holding the excess capacity MUST sublicense it to you. Same for California. Same for any state. Rural Texas? Vexus Fiber is diggin shit up in Tyler TX. Middle of nowhere WA? Ziply is taking the risk. Doesn't matter if it is the densest or most historically protected city or loneliest prairie town you, yes you, can start an ISP right now, today. Reforms to the Pole Attachment Act have made this shit is easy now. Easy, but not cheap. Just gather $100 million so you can pay the $30k-50k per mile (due to material and labor NOT "rEgUlAtoRy CaPtuRe") to microtrench or pole-attach, get all of the permits to trench on public rights-of-way and negotiate the few (if any) non-public crossings you have to make, post the bonds needed to ensure that if you go bankrupt mid-construction there's cash to clean up YOUR mess, hire the network/civil engineers needed, pay for peering, staff an office and support center, and you, yes you, can start your own fiber ISP--today. Hell, many states will give you money to offset the costs. If I had $100 million I could wire all 2,300 homes in my Maryland suburb with fiber and no regulation could stop me. If I had $100 million I wouldn't waste it on that (we can already choose from multiple gigabit+ ISPs) I would retire.

simoncion 2y ago
> "20 minutes from Google's Headquarters" is San Jose. It's also Burlingame, San Mateo, Fremont, Union City... Or, if the traffic is bad, it's Redwood City, Menlo Park, Stanford, Cupertino... Or, if you're taking public transit (or walking), it's pretty much just Mountain View.
- snakeyjake 2y ago
  It doesn’t matter in which cardinal direction you travel for 20 minutes— regulatory capture ain’t stopping anyone from starting their own ISP.
  - simoncion 2y ago
    > Reforms to the Pole Attachment Act have made this shit is easy now. Easy, but not cheap. AFAICT, the pole attachment regulation changes only happened in mid-January 2024. They're probably good changes, but 1) They happened just yesterday, speaking in "policy time". 2) If you don't think an absolute assload of time and money can be wasted with doomed-to-fail appeals and spurious orders for documentation and impact analysis and the like, you've spent all your life in a shockingly well-run city (or maybe a place with next-to-no municipal services and associated power grabs). > It doesn’t matter in which cardinal direction you travel for 20 minutes... Well, it does, actually. See below for commentary on your particular selection of SJ as your exemplar city. > ...regulatory capture ain’t stopping anyone from starting their own ISP. And yet for some weird reason, there are precious few non-telco/cableco ISPs in places like San Francisco that are doing something other than reselling rotting DSL, or running small microwave dishes on rooftops (that is, being a WISP). San Jose may be remarkably well-managed (though, I expect WISPs make up the lion's share of your 20 ISP figure (and they're playing on easy mode in regards to permission-seeking)), but other places in the Bay Area are definitely not. I've been living in SF for more than a decade, and I've watched Monkeybrains notice that building a city-wide fiber network was completely impractical and resorted to being a WISP. I've also watched Sonic's fiber installation program in the city stall for roughly a decade. While I'm glad that starting in mid 2019 [0] they've been able to string and light up fiber to not just small sections of the most western portions of the city but a significant fraction of the city, much of Sebastapol got lit up quite a while back. You'd expect a big city with a high density of customers would get lit up before a fairly small, sparse town if it was just a cost/benefit analysis doing the location selection. Whatever you want to call it, the political and regulatory situation on the ground is obviously getting in the way of folks providing civilized-speed data transit services to potential customers in many major cities. You don't want to call it "regulatory capture"? Okay, sure. The on-the-ground political resistance and obstructionism is still rooted in the same sort of backroom dealing and under-the-table kickbacks, so you're just using a different phrase for the same behavior. [0] Notice that this substantially predates the pole attachment rule changes that you've brought up.

simoncion 2y ago

> "20 minutes from Google's Headquarters" is San Jose. It's also Burlingame, San Mateo, Fremont, Union City... Or, if the traffic is bad, it's Redwood City, Menlo Park, Stanford, Cupertino... Or, if you're taking public transit (or walking), it's pretty much just Mountain View.

snakeyjake 2y ago
It doesn’t matter in which cardinal direction you travel for 20 minutes— regulatory capture ain’t stopping anyone from starting their own ISP.
- simoncion 2y ago
  > Reforms to the Pole Attachment Act have made this shit is easy now. Easy, but not cheap. AFAICT, the pole attachment regulation changes only happened in mid-January 2024. They're probably good changes, but 1) They happened just yesterday, speaking in "policy time". 2) If you don't think an absolute assload of time and money can be wasted with doomed-to-fail appeals and spurious orders for documentation and impact analysis and the like, you've spent all your life in a shockingly well-run city (or maybe a place with next-to-no municipal services and associated power grabs). > It doesn’t matter in which cardinal direction you travel for 20 minutes... Well, it does, actually. See below for commentary on your particular selection of SJ as your exemplar city. > ...regulatory capture ain’t stopping anyone from starting their own ISP. And yet for some weird reason, there are precious few non-telco/cableco ISPs in places like San Francisco that are doing something other than reselling rotting DSL, or running small microwave dishes on rooftops (that is, being a WISP). San Jose may be remarkably well-managed (though, I expect WISPs make up the lion's share of your 20 ISP figure (and they're playing on easy mode in regards to permission-seeking)), but other places in the Bay Area are definitely not. I've been living in SF for more than a decade, and I've watched Monkeybrains notice that building a city-wide fiber network was completely impractical and resorted to being a WISP. I've also watched Sonic's fiber installation program in the city stall for roughly a decade. While I'm glad that starting in mid 2019 [0] they've been able to string and light up fiber to not just small sections of the most western portions of the city but a significant fraction of the city, much of Sebastapol got lit up quite a while back. You'd expect a big city with a high density of customers would get lit up before a fairly small, sparse town if it was just a cost/benefit analysis doing the location selection. Whatever you want to call it, the political and regulatory situation on the ground is obviously getting in the way of folks providing civilized-speed data transit services to potential customers in many major cities. You don't want to call it "regulatory capture"? Okay, sure. The on-the-ground political resistance and obstructionism is still rooted in the same sort of backroom dealing and under-the-table kickbacks, so you're just using a different phrase for the same behavior. [0] Notice that this substantially predates the pole attachment rule changes that you've brought up.