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Broadband Bermuda Triangle
An anonymous coward sent in: "Mike from Techdirt has written an article in Salon.com about how he is the bermuda triangle of broadband, and how the government should kick him out of the country if they really want to save the broadband industry. Apparently, he's been kicked off 4 or 5 different broadband networks in the past year alone as each company went bankrupt or gave up the business."
It's a shame broadband internet services cant seem to turn a profit. I'd like to see a cable provider provide me with an IP address, and thats it. I'll take care of my email and other services. Something like 'Broadband for Nerds. Simplicity Matters.' or.. something like that...
Don't Tread on Me
Other powerful interests opposed to the future are large publishers, governments, advertisers and all others want to tell you what to think. Free speech is not what these folks want. They want broadcast and money. If you don't consider propaganda and money equivalents, consider what a green piece of paper is really worth.
DMCA, Hollings, Palladium. What might have sounded like paranoia is now common sense.
Fuck local loops. The Bells will never open it up. IP laws will ease up around the same time this happens.
Let's treat internet infrastructure as infrastructure (aka roads) and have the govt lay the lines. We can fully fund this with the 70+ billion ca$h from the War on Terrorism. Remember, the Interstate highway system was built from Defense dollars during the Cold War, and that's why their symbol is a little shield. If bush can justify handing IBM a check for 1.3 billion in the name of homeland defense, then this should be a congressional walkover.
After that, let private ISP's bid to operate the lines (i.e. maintenance, routers, cacheing, etc.) and make money on service not bandwidth. Competing on the quality of service is more productive than getting into infrastructure wars -- suing who owes what to whom. You can then run your mail/web server and pay only the costs of administering your account, which should be billing you, electricity, and checking that no one cut the line to your house accidently. Shouldn't be too much. Those who want webmail and funky desktop icons which guide you through the internet search process can and should pay extra. Also, I think more people will sign up if there's a fiber optic line heading to just about every home in the major urban areas. As an extra plus, it'll give silicon valley a shot in the arm.
For those whom just can't stand the thought of govt. spending on public infrastructure, you can always just privatize the thing once the lines are laid and enough cutomers have signed up to make it profitable.
When in doubt, have a man come through a door with a gun in his hand.
The problem as I see it is the weird split between the monopolistic line owners and the purely competitive ISPs in the broadband arena. The traditional dial-up ISP business didn't have this problem since everyone had pretty much the same cost structure so profitability, even though relatively low, was pretty much the same across the board, and competetition could occur on features and the dreaded "ease of use" (AOL drool-proofing).
DSL has monopolistic ILECs and generally monopolistic CLECs (you can use Covad or Rhythms, but it's fixed based on your choice of ISP and location usually). Cable has monopolistic line owners. Because ILECs (I'm thinking Verizon here) can be ISPs too, they will naturally take a price gouging on their ISP service to get business and avoid having to share profits with a seperate company. This allows them to drive ISPs out of business and become the "last man standing". At that point they can price service however they damn well feel. See: Microsoft, monopoly. Cable modem service is different in that you have no choices as the consumer, but because the ISP business is basically a commodity, the separation is farcical: the Cable companies own the pipe, and will abuse the ISP until the ISP leaves the business, realizing they can't make a buck, or just goes out of business. Now again the Cable modem company is the last man standing - or they just find some other drooling ISP to give them el cheapo contract, who they will slowly abuse and tighten a noose on until the same happens again.
I've seen more than enough people leave a otherwise technically competent ISP due to impossible service through their customer service department.
Surprising, this doesn't seem to be as big an issue with the dialup ISPs.
If you are *are* going to set up an ISP, get the bookkeeping down first before you buy any of the connectivity equipment. Getting technical help to your customers first is a priority, but knowning whom your customers are is more important than that!
"Pinky, you've left the lens cap of your mind on again." - P&TB
"I can see my house from here!" - ST:
The main problems I see are the marketing, and the definition of 'Internet'.
Now.. I know, to us geeks.. when we think 'Internet Provider' we think, someone to provide us with a connection, and to route us some IP. Period. We also expect them to have (or delegate to us) proper reverse-DNS. ANd that's ALL we require. Now.. we sort of expect them to have DNS servers for us to use with our resolvers, because that's just traditional (not to mention easy to do), but that's only a convenience. As is the outgoing mail server, and incoming mail services.
Now we have ISP's selling you on their 'content' or their 'portal'. WE have ISP's refusing to allow SMTP connections through anything but their own mail server... and the list goes on.
So how do we get out of this mess? How do we make a clean separation between routing IP and all the other services they can provide? I know we geeks would love to see an ISP with modularized service. You get 1 IP with your connection, and that's it. No other services are provided by the ISP. Then the ISP could sell web space, email accounts, webmail, portals, high-speed local content, etc.
Oh.. and regarding those 'useless' services many of us don't use (like your 10MB web space, or 5 email accounts). A friend of mine moved, and was looking for a new connection. He asked the Telus people (Alberta, Canada) "Hey, can I trade my 10MB web space for a static IP?" They said "Sure". THat's the kind of thing I'd like to see.
Sure, plenty of Slashdot readers will sign up, but Joe Sixpack is perfectly content with his 28.8K connection to AOL.
Step into the way-back machine and swap 'broadband' for broadcast TV:
The customers will be there when the service is. Having the government install the infrastructure makes it affordable.