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FCC Weighs Net Access Charge Decision
An anonymous reader writes "The FCC is considering a request from AT&T to lift restrictions on the types of charges they can level against competitors that use their infrastructure. The organization had previously allowed that for Verizon by virtue of a deadlock, and Ma Bell now hopes to see similar treatment. 'All the requests have been strongly opposed by smaller rivals such as Sprint Nextel, Time Warner Telecommunications and XO Communications. These competitors argue that they have few alternatives to get access to the high-speed lines they need, and are being charged more and more by the dominant carriers.'"
AT&T got all kinds of subsidies and grants of right-of-way to build their infrastructure. The theory was that this was in exchange for access.
Tom Swiss | the infamous tms | my blog
You cannot wash away blood with blood
Unfortunately, companies need money to finance technology research. Sprint has already "bet the farm" on WiMax, which, if it doesn't work out, will put them out of business. So, they've already put their money where their mouth is to try to use technology to solve their problems and don't have any additional financing to re-create a fiber grid.
When you break it down, AT&T is suspiciously close to using monopolistic practices to defeat smaller competitors. As AT&T was once a government-created monopoly, the government should've done a better job policing their push back towards monopoly status. Unfortunately, our current administration uses a very light hand when it comes to enforcing anti-monopoly laws (I'd reference the way the Justice Dept backed off of Microsoft and the way they've let AT&T acquire everyone they want).
Monopolies almost always result in less efficiency in a market.
Of course, when I own both Park Place and Boardwalk and put up hotels, I'm not going to cut you any deals either.
Communist Zonk. They should have no restrictions at all. Then again, according to Communist Zonk everything should be like Open-Sores and Communism. By the way go ahead and flame away, mod this comment down, or ignore this comment. By doing any of those you will prove just how right I am.
A satellite in geostationary orbit is far enough (35,786 km) from the surface of the Earth to introduce measurable latency, even when your signal is traveling at the speed of light. That is the GP's point.