[cldellow]

Big telcos lobby for laws to make it illegal, e.g. Louisiana 844.42 [1]:

"To ensure that cable television services and telecommunications and advanced services are provided through fair competition [...]"

Advanced services are defined in 844.43 [2] to mean Internet that's faster than 144 kilobits per second.

This means that the wifi in MSY (New Orlean's airport, a government facility) is utterly unusable.

I can understand the narrative: having government skim the good stuff is a bad deal for corporations since government can do things corporations can't (e.g., taxes, zoning, land use permits, seize land). Presumably, this discourages corporations from providing comprehensive services since they cannot subsidize poorly-performing areas with great performing areas. I'm skeptical that that's a valid reason to have such a law, but c'est la vie.

[1]: http://www.legis.state.la.us/lss/lss.asp?doc=285523

[2]: http://www.legis.state.la.us/lss/lss.asp?doc=285524

[AnthonyMouse]

> I can understand the narrative: having government skim the good stuff is a bad deal for corporations since government can do things corporations can't (e.g., taxes, zoning, land use permits, seize land). Presumably, this discourages corporations from providing comprehensive services since they cannot subsidize poorly-performing areas with great performing areas.

The think I can't understand is why we should care. If the government is providing reliable gigabit fiber at a reasonable price, who cares if Comcast can't profitably offer service in the same geography? If the city is doing a good job then you don't need them. Meanwhile if the city does a poor job then Comcast will have no trouble providing better service and winning all the customers, right?