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by project2501a 1775 days ago
> (a commodity really)

you mean a utility, right?

1 comments

Both really.

Once a location is served by more than one provider, it becomes a commodity (who can sell packets the cheapest).

In many locations, essentially once you get outside of major cities, it is not economical to run more than one line to each property - telecoms often ends up a monopoly, similar to power distribution or water supply. You can lessen the effects by having the physical infrastructure owned by a different entity to the service provided - like in the U.K. with BT Openreach for example, and in that case maybe the service is a commodity - but I don’t think the infrastructure ever really is.
Wireless, satelite, cable in own ducts, fibre through sewer.

There’s multiple ways to deliver ip packets to a property in the country.

A better solution could be to have ducts to run whatever owned by the council and available on a RAND basis - sane way roads are, but it’s not essential for competition.