fcc ruling on dsl providers' access to infrastructure

Mon Aug 8 08:21:57 UTC 2005

On Sun, 2005-08-07 at 22:20 -0400, Richard A Steenbergen wrote:
> On Sun, Aug 07, 2005 at 02:21:59PM -0700, Douglas Otis wrote:

> > The choice for broadband will be either the cable company or the phone
> > company, in those areas with both.  In other areas, it will be just the
> > phone company.  : (
> 
...
> Clearly this is a special situation where there is a natural monopoly 
> given to whomever runs the wires.

When the government proves unwilling to ensure reasonable access to the
central office, why assume loosing this option benefits consumers?
Consumers will be facing either a phone monopoly or a phone/cable
duopoly.  The US lags behind many other countries in broadband access
already, where this change inhibits establishment of other carriers,
even assuming alternative last-mile technologies could prove viable in
the future.  There is now no intermediate step into this arena, unless
you consider dial-up an entry point.

-Doug