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100 Years Ago, No Free Broadband Pneumatic Tubes
TheSync writes "The Division of Labour blog spotlights a report written 100 years ago by a commission appointed by the Postmaster General, that came to the conclusion: 'That it is not feasible and desirable at the present time for the Government to purchase, to install, or to operate pneumatic tubes.' Here is a scan of the original NYTimes article. If only we had gotten the free government Intertubes in 1908!"
Most people only own the land up to their driveway. From there on, it's usually owned by the city.
That's why if the water pipes break (due to an earthquake or something) in the middle of the street, it's not your responsibility to fix it. You'd have a hard time dividing up the bill, in any case.
And for obvious reasons, a company can't just dig up a road and install new pipes or cables. They need a permit, and the city doesn't want the road being dug up every other week so they grant exclusive rights for ONE group to do it once.
Now arguably since it's public land, the network connections ought to be owned and controlled by the city and leased out to any ISP that wants to hook you up, but that's much different from the homeowner owning the last mile.
The last mile is going to be a monopoly,
Why? Just because you cannot think of a way?
No, because the last mile is a natural monopoly.
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
We have similar laws for electricity and phone, so why not internet.
Perhaps you need a history lesson. Rural areas of the United States originally got electric service through public cooperative organizations because the private utilities would not provide service in these areas. While laws were passed to provide government loans to these co-ops, private companies were not forced to provide service.
Private utility companies later purchased many of these co-ops, but there are still co-ops providing electric service in many areas today.