Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by walrus01 1445 days ago
> The utterly inefficient and overpriced Canadian telecoms exist only because we allow one specific behavior:

> 1. A new local player comes to town, builds their own infrastructure (e.g. connects one building to fiber) and starts offering competitive service.

You forgot to mention that whoever is the ILEC in an area (Telus, Bell, etc) and/or the incumbent 35+ year early advantage local cable TV operator (Shaw, Rogers) has an immense advantage in owning and controlling existing right-of-way to reach whatever is the last mile service delivery location, whether it's aerial pole to pole or duct routes.
1 comments
futureproofd 1445 days ago
They legally have the right of way to build infrastructure to connect to newly developed, last mile locations? Interesting.
link
walrus01 1445 days ago
whether in usa or canada, local governments treat the incumbent local phone company and cable tv company as a default essential utility, so if it's not a legally enshrined right, it would certainly be shocking and weird if they didn't build to new places

of course in places where the local phone company or cable tv company shares aerial utility pole based infrastructure with the local power company, they're very close buddies as well

link
octoberfranklin 1445 days ago
In most of the USA the local telcos are obligated to extend service to new construction as part of government grants they've received in the past. The obligation is usually for something like ~10 years, but the grant cycle is shorter than that.

The recent "RDOF" mega-grant has one of these clauses (at the census block level):

"All support recipients must serve locations newly built after the revised location total but before the end of year eight upon reasonable request"

https://www.fcc.gov/auction/904/factsheet

These mega-grant things happen every 6-8 years. The last was "CAP II", preceded by "CAP I", etc. The telcos are basically treated like municipalities when it comes to federal grantmaking. This is basically the system that was lobbied into place after AT&T was broken up; the FCC just took over AT&T's local-loop capital allocation.

link