[WaterSponge]

I don't think they compete directly in vast majority of markets and for this to go through they will surely forfeit those smaller contested ones.

I think this will go through. Then they will have a huge "content and subscriber" stick to wave around at Aereo, Netflix, Apple and anyone else wanting to play the net content hero.

[AnthonyMouse]

> Then they will have a huge "content and subscriber" stick to wave around at Aero, Netflix, Apple and anyone else wanting to play the net content hero.

That's really the play here. Get a ton more captive users in order to better extort Netflix et al for access to those customers, and beat that stick until all their over the top service competitors are either out of business or uncompetitive. Then the real screwing of customers can commence in earnest.

[alttab]

Cheaper and faster urban mobile networks will take over before that reality is allowed for an extended period of time in some protracted way.

[AnthonyMouse]

I think people are overly optimistic about the ability to endlessly increase the performance of wireless networks. The existing networks make fairly efficient use of the spectrum they're allocated. That means you really only have two options to make it go faster.

1) More spectrum. But it's massively in demand (read: expensive), nobody wants to give any up, and even if you had "all" the spectrum there are still practical physical limits about how much data you can transmit without using a wavelength that won't penetrate walls.

2) More towers that each use lower power. This is the one that can get you almost arbitrarily large amounts of wireless bandwidth, but it's also the one whose cost converges on the cost of building a new fiber optic network as the number of towers you need approaches the number of users you have.

Neither one of those is going to make for an inexpensive roll out of a wireless network capable of handling Netflix's video traffic to millions of customers simultaneously in the same city.

[redwall_hp]

3) Municipal fiber-optic lines that ISPs can lease access to in order to provide service to customers. Boom, no more monopolies.

[runako]

Worth noting that this is illegal to some extent in ~19 states. The broadband oligopoly already thought of this, and has been working to pre-empt it for a while.

[igravious]

You'll be wanting WSPs (waste service providers) to lease access to sewage pipes next. Where will it all end?

[Spooky23]

The difference between the sewer and broadband is that the price of giving sewer district a monopoly is regulation as a public utility.

So if whomever runs your sewer decides that they will not accept solid waste anymore, there is a regulator who will prohibit that from happening.

In many states, the Public Service Commission or similar entity has lots of regulatory authority over cable television, landline and electric rates, but no authority over cellular or broadband. Shockingly, the utilities have invested nothing in the regulated markets for 20 years.

[lucian1900]

That would also be a great idea.

Leasing infrastructure works great in lots of cases.

[toomuchtodo]

So get on it. Find your local city/state reps, tell them you want this, and do it.

Places all over the US have already done so, but someone has to show there is local demand.

[niels_olson]

Err, simple physics ensures mobile will never have the bandwidth of copper wire. Every band and protocol can be transmitted over the wire to each node independently.