| > My point is, I don't see how allowing these "exclusive" coverage monopolies does anything but harm the consumer. I imagine a community based provider like the one in the article would be met with a host of legal challenges here. This is a holdover from the early days of the phone systems, i.e, 1920s. It is extremely expensive to string cables, and so a whole bunch of companies would install stuff to the most lucrative markets (big cities), go bankrupt, and then there would be all of these cables would be left hanging causing a hazard. So it was decided that only one company would string cables... but that company would have its prices regulated. Fast forward a few decades, and those incumbent telco/cableco companies still had monopolies (or huge advantages because they had infrastructure built back in the day), but the price regulations were rescinded. IMHO the solution is either: * bring back price controls (with infrastructure upgrades and a modest profit margin taken into account) * force the incumbents to allow ISO Layer 2 access to other companies so there is competition at Layer 3 (IP) The latter is: * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open-access_network |