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> So I'm not sure this is a 'natural monopoly' at all. To be clear, by 'infrastructure' I mean physical lines going to the premises. There's still hope for wir

> So I'm not sure this is a 'natural monopoly' at all. To be clear, by 'infrastructure' I mean physical lines going to the premises. There's still hope for wireless, but competition in the physical connection space is effectively dead, and getting deader with every merger.

gojomo 13y ago
Then break them up. Or run new lines: it'll be easier than the cable buildout of a couple decades ago, we're richer and smarter today. But also: why are the physical lines a separate market from wireless? They are very, very close substitutes – bits are bits. And advancing tech or clever to-the-curb (but not to-the-premises) buildouts could make wireless broadband fully competitive with the wired networks. If the wired incumbents get fat and happy on a position of temporary advantage – for example for bulk video delivery – then those potential wireless advances will see more investment.
- mullingitover 13y ago
  > Then break them up. That's effectively what I'm advocating--by removing their monopoly power to be the only ISP available to the customer on the other end of their lines. Breaking them up into regionalized monopolies doesn't give consumers a choice, but opening the lines to competition does.
- loup-vaillant 13y ago
  Physical line can be way faster, especially with fibre. The bandwidth difference will only widen over time. These are different market. You may think the buck stops somewhere, but after 720p video streaming, you get 1080. Then you get gaming, at sixty FPS, not 30. Then you get VR streaming, up to 10 times the pixel rate, and nearly twice the frame rate to have perfect presence. And never mind the latency requirements. Then you can get more sci-fi, with direct neural interfaces, and, eventually whole brain emulation over the network —though at that point, the economy would have changed so much that the fibre vs wireless debate will be quite moot.

gojomo 13y ago

Then break them up. Or run new lines: it'll be easier than the cable buildout of a couple decades ago, we're richer and smarter today. But also: why are the physical lines a separate market from wireless? They are very, very close substitutes – bits are bits. And advancing tech or clever to-the-curb (but not to-the-premises) buildouts could make wireless broadband fully competitive with the wired networks. If the wired incumbents get fat and happy on a position of temporary advantage – for example for bulk video delivery – then those potential wireless advances will see more investment.

mullingitover 13y ago
> Then break them up. That's effectively what I'm advocating--by removing their monopoly power to be the only ISP available to the customer on the other end of their lines. Breaking them up into regionalized monopolies doesn't give consumers a choice, but opening the lines to competition does.
loup-vaillant 13y ago
Physical line can be way faster, especially with fibre. The bandwidth difference will only widen over time. These are different market. You may think the buck stops somewhere, but after 720p video streaming, you get 1080. Then you get gaming, at sixty FPS, not 30. Then you get VR streaming, up to 10 times the pixel rate, and nearly twice the frame rate to have perfect presence. And never mind the latency requirements. Then you can get more sci-fi, with direct neural interfaces, and, eventually whole brain emulation over the network —though at that point, the economy would have changed so much that the fibre vs wireless debate will be quite moot.