ISP's In Uproar Over Verizon-MCI Merger

Thu Aug 25 21:51:37 UTC 2005

>> > So, of the 11 countries that the OECD thinks have greater broadband
>> > penetration than the USA, 6 are more densely-populated than the USA
>> > and 5 are not.
>> 
>> I wonder how they figure population density...  Is it just a matter of
>> land area divided by the number of residents, or something more complex.

It's land area divided by number of residents, and as people have
noted, the US is unusual both in being large and spread out.  Canada,
for example, has a gargantuan area, but just about everyone lives in
the 100 mile wide strip along the southern border and everyone else
lives in a few cities like Calgary.

>	I've considered running my own conduit/fiber loop on the
>street with my other neighbors and providing that as a carrot to
>lower the cost for their network builds.

If you're going to do that, how about building your own system and
then sign up with Comcast as a wholesale customer?  If they said no,
it'd be an interesting argument in front of the state PUC for them to
say that they're not going to wire up individual houses, and they
won't serve your system either.

R's,
John