Some truth about Comcast - WikiLeaks style

Tue Dec 21 10:42:32 UTC 2010

----- "Owen DeLong" <owen at delong.com> wrote:

> Personally, I think that enforced UNE is the right model. If you sell
> higher level services, you should not be allowed to operate the physical
> plant.  The physical plant operating companies should sell access to the
> physical plant to higher level service providers on an equal footing.

To all intents and purposes what we have in the UK.  BT, the old, formally government-owned, then privatised, effective last-mile monopoly, was split up.  (I believe in return for some more government cash to build infrastructure, but I could be wrong on the order of events).

BT OpenReach is now responsible for wires on poles / in the ground, CO space etc, and has to sell access to these to other divisions of BT (Wholesale, Residential) in the same arms-length way they sell them to other ISPs.  It doesn't always work *quite* like that, especially in respect of actually getting space and power in COs, but the framework is there...

Regards,
Tim.