In article <telecom24.412.10@telecom-digest.org>, John L. Shelton
<john@jshelton.com> wrote:
> Do you really trust the people who won't patch potholes or
> widen the highways, yet take billions in road-maintenance money, to
> provide you with better and better internet connections "for free?"
I don't remember the original article, and I can't go back and look
without losing context, but I don't recall anyone offering "free"
access. And if they're trying to build a service in an area where the
other providers WON'T offer service then they're not eliminating
competition because the competition wasn't there to begin with.
> I understand you think SBC and others can still compete. Just like
> private schools compete with public. But it's not real competition,
> when the public schools have a $10k/student subsidy.
Or when the private schools don't have to accept low-income or
mentally handicapped students, or have to deal with a host of other
issues that make the comparison unfair.
John Meissen jmeissen@aracnet.com
[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: A situation like this occurred in
Chicago several years ago, when City of Chicago _attempted_ to take
over the electric power utility. They said they could handle it so
much more effeciently and inexpensively than the historical provider
of same, Commonwealth Edison Company. But they were not going to
negotiate with anyone, or deal with laws of any sort; they were simply
going to -- in polite terms -- 'municipalize' the electric service,
which is to say they were going to steal it. It was only when several
large corporations threatened to move out of town in self defense if
the plans went through and others of influence such as Chicago Tribune
called attention to the city's intentions that the city backed off.
The Tribune noted "so the gang of cronies and politicians which run
our transit atrocity, our housing atrocity, our schools and our parks
are now going to be in charge of our nuclear plants as well
...". Mayor Daley blinked at that and after the obligatory defense of
the city government decided to back away from the plan. This is not
quite the same thing as Seattle's plan for muni wi-fi, but quite similar.
PAT]
jmeissen@aracnet.com