[radicalbyte]

OT: this post is the 4th result in Google. Comment on HN indexed within 35 minutes. Crazy.

It kind of sucks for companies like that, but competition is good.

In an ideal situation you'd have "the people" own the pipes which they then rent at cost to commercial providers. In practice this would usually be via local government, but I'd prefer it via some kind of mutual society (where residents own a share, is open only to residents, and which is sold along with the property).

The UK has a variation of this model, called "local loop unbundling" (http://www.openreach.co.uk/orpg/home/products/llu/llu.do). The infra was originally built by the state telco BT, which was then privatized. To create competition they introduced LLU, which forced BT to allow competition access to the pipes.

[sitkack]

The last mile should be open to the people and supported as infrastructure. I should be able to send packets across town for zero cost.

[kordless]

You should also be able to host your own services. These two things are more closely related than a lot of people realize.

[sgt101]

Two points - someone has to maintain the network; holes need digging, kit needs buying, upgrading and monitoring. This cannot be free. It could be a government utility, but paying for it would then come out of taxes and the choice would be between paying for that, aircraft carriers or incubators.

Second, networks are designed to deliver different things at different price points. Running a web service at the end of a residential connection does not make economic sense compared to running it in a datacentre connected directly to a peering point on 40gig-e.

[kordless]

> end of a residential connection does not make economic sense compared to running it in a datacentre

While I agree with you, I believe there exists an in-between solution.