TELECOM Digest OnLine - Sorted: Re: Information Wants to be Free

Re: Information Wants to be Free

jmeissen@aracnet.com
24 Jan 2006 19:26:04 GMT

In article <telecom25.35.7@telecom-digest.org>, <hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com> wrote:

> Randall Stross wrote:

>> In other words, _other_ companies can do as they please, but the
>> phone carriers are locked into restrictions and discount services to
>> benefit others.

This is nothing new, and not necessarily bad. Monopolies, critical
infrastructure and other industries should be and are regulated for
the good of the many over the profits for the few.

The phone company is an infrastructure. They have no business
controlling content, especially when they want to compete with the
content delivered over their government-sanctioned-monopoly
infrastructure.

You can say that it's just as feasable for someone else to deploy the
fiber circuits that Verizon has been installing lately, but that's not
true. They already have existing right-of-way agreements and they're
only deploying in their current market -- in other words, it's
essentially upgrading existing customers. Also, competitive
infrastructure usually isn't a good thing. It's been tried in the past
-- the early power industry involved several companies competing to
deliver electricity to the same area, and it was a mess.

Critical infrastructure, such as water delivery, waste management and
the cables that provide the physical interconnections for power and
communication need to be regulated and controlled. The competition
should be among the content providers.

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