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Judge Tosses Telco Suit Over City-Owned Network
tsa sends along news of the city of Monticello, Minnesota, which was sued by their local telco, Bridgewater Telephone Company, because the city chose to build a fiber optics network of their own. The judge dismissed their complaint of competition by a governmental organization. Quoting: "The judge's ruling is noteworthy for two things: (1) the judge's complete dismissal of Bridgewater Telephone Company's complaint and (2) his obvious anger at the underfunding of Minnesota's state courts. Indeed, the longest footnote in the opinion is an extended jeremiad about how much work judges are under and why it took so long to decide this case."
You had better take a look at this http://www.cbc.ca/money/story/2007/06/13/canadapostups.html. UPS didn't WANT to compete, they wanted to sue. Just like everyone else.
A jeremiad is by definition an "extended critique".
May the Grammar Nazis have mercy on you.
Rich And Stupid is not so bad as Working For Rich And Stupid.
Usually a smart telco doesn't sue, they simply bribe the legislature into restricting their municipal competition (bottom of page).
(Basically, Comcast and Qwest bribed the Utah legislature into stopping their multi-muni competitor, UTOPIA, in Utah. The Utah ACLU's letter against such action is here: http://www.acluutah.org/utopia.htm)
Quo usque tandem abutere, Nimbus, patientia nostra?
It's called loser-pays. We have it up here in Canada, that and less lawsuits.
"Knowledge is the only instrument of production that is not subject to diminishing returns" -Journal of Political Econom
*sigh* YOU just made me lose some mod points. But nevermind. Since 1970s, Memphis Light Gas and Water has been running power cables with FIBER inside. In other words, the entire city is full of dark fiber. How much extra did it cost to run the fiber? Not that much, just the incremental cost over what it cost to have power lines that were empty in the middle, instead of being filled with fiber.
What is to stop this city from doing the same thing? It probably already did that, and that is why it feels that it can provide fiber to the house.
Just because *YOU* don't have experience does not mean that your experience is right. People working in government agencies do not start their day thinking how they can be inefficient for you.