[funsec] Not so fast, broadband providers tell big users (fwd)

Tue Mar 13 17:33:37 UTC 2007

On Mar 13, 2007, at 10:10 AM, Daniel Senie wrote:

> As with the deployment of telephone service a century ago, the  
> ubiquitious availability of broadband service will require  
> government involvement in the form of fees on some and subsidies  
> for others (might be a good use for the funds Massachusetts is  
> trying to extract from Verizon for property tax on telephone poles,  
> I suppose). Otherwise, we'll see the broadband providers continue  
> to cherry pick the communities to service, and leave others in the  
> digital dustbowl.

Various rural phone companies aside, the majority of this was  
accomplished in the U.S. via a regulated monopoly, and in many other  
countries via a government-owned regulated monopoly.  Do you believe  
that's necessary and/or desirable in order to make broadband  
ubiquitous?  How do longer-range wireless technologies like WiMAX  
potentially impact the equation?

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Roland Dobbins <rdobbins at cisco.com> // 408.527.6376 voice

         Words that come from a machine have no soul.

                       -- Duong Van Ngo