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How Google Fiber Could Do Some National Good, Or At Least Scare the Carriers
Nerval's Lobster writes "Within hours of Google announcing that Austin, Texas would be the next lucky recipient of its Google Fiber initiative, AT&T released a statement indicating that it was willing to build a high-speed broadband network in the city, too. 'AT&T announced that in conjunction with its previously announced Project VIP expansion of broadband access, it is prepared to build an advanced fiber optic infrastructure in Austin, Texas, capable of delivering speeds up to 1 gigabit per second,' read the statement. But there's a not-so-slight catch: AT&T wants whatever conditions Google received from the city of Austin. Google itself has provided precious little guidance about its future plans. 'We are still in the very early stages of it,' Google CEO Larry Page told media and analysts during the company's Jan. 22 earnings call, according to a transcript. 'Obviously, we are going to a small number of people and so, but we are excited about the possibilities.' But if Google Fiber keeps expanding, it could compel AT&T and other infrastructure providers to boost their broadband service and offer it on more reasonable terms — nothing like some competition to make things a little better for the collective customer base. In that sense, even if Google Fiber doesn't expand into a national program (and imagine the costs of that), its existence will still do some larger good."
Actually Verizon stopped expanding because they made a deal with ComCast to not encroach on each others territory.
Google "Verizon Comcast mutual deal" for a plethora of links about it. Just as many of those links show people were worried it would mean less incentive for them to increase their service areas...guess what happened?
People in cars cause accidents....accidents in cars cause people
In my state, they "supported" a lot of legislators, and franchising of telecom is now handled by the state. Less candidates to "support" that way, I guess.
What are we going to do tonight Brain?
we already paid AT&T and other telcos for national broadband back the 90s; they don't deserve nor do they get the same deal google does. they need to provide what we paid them to do (the thieves used the money to buy up competitors)
The problem is not laying down fiber or building infrastructure: The problem is that nobody else can because of contractual agreements. And who's fault is this? Not the federal government. In fact, not even the state government. The primary malfactor here is municipalities. Take away their ability to ink exclusive contracts, and this whole issue would dry up in a few years. There's agreements still in force from the 90s saying they'd deliver "broadband internet" of 1mbit/s as long as they have exclusive rights to lay cable and stuff for 20 years.
Even in cases where the agreements aren't exclusive (larger cities, mostly, who have more negotiating power), there is still so much red tape, and so many different layers of bureauacracy to get through before any actual work can be done, that companies smaller than Google have no hope of ever breaking into the market. This is an artificially-created monopoly created not by the telecos, but by municipalities.
You want broadband internet? Crush city hall and hand control over to the state or federal government. Take these small-time politicians out of the mix.
#fuckbeta #iamslashdot #dicemustdie
The free market works fine. The problem is you don't have a free market. There are three or more levels of government with multiple agencies, each with their own agenda, all creating barriers to entry (i.e. regulations). If it was just a matter of paying for right of way and building the infrastructure you'd see loads of competition. Admittedly, the cost of entry is high with systems like land lines, cell phones, and wired internet, but you would see it happening a lot more without all the regulations and control by various levels of government.
Initially, the competition would be for the areas most likely to provide a profit. Economically depressed areas would get slighted. But that's the free market. You take your product to the customers who are most likely to buy. Insisting that everyone have access to the same level of service for the same price may be considered fair by many, but it's not a free market.
My understanding is Google is being very selective about where they roll out service in KC. Make a deposit to demonstrate your willingness to pay for our service. When enough people in your neighborhood join in, we'll provide you with service. KC wanted this badly enough to keep their regulatory instincts in check and allow Google to develop the service with free market forces.
Consumer advocates are concerned the massive co-marketing and spectrum deal between Verizon and cable companies includes so-called gentlemen's agreements that FiOS will never be expanded into additional markets
From here
People in cars cause accidents....accidents in cars cause people