Inevitable death, was Re: Verizon Public Policy on Netflix

Mon Jul 14 17:41:12 UTC 2014

On Mon, Jul 14, 2014 at 10:15 AM, Scott Helms <khelms at zcorum.com> wrote:

> Benson,
>
>
> The difference, and its a large one, is that the large operators have no
> interest in building in the less dense rural (and sometimes suburban)
> areas.  The smaller operators are often the only provider in the area and
> unlike a bookstore if someone wants broadband in an area they can't drive
> to a larger town and bring a bagful home the way we can with books.
>

But if that's the case, then Brett has no issue.  As Benson
noted:

On Mon, Jul 14, 2014 at 12:08 PM, Benson Schliesser <bensons at queuefull.net>
> wrote:
>
> > Thanks for adding this perspective, Barry. I think it's realistic. But I
> > also think it might miss an orthogonally connected issue - this isn't
> just
> > about bandwidth, but about commoditization, consolidation, size etc. It
> may
> > be that small ISPs just can't compete (at least in the broader market) as
> > the market evolves. Similar to how I was disappointed by the loss of my
> > local bookstore, but still buy all my stuff from Amazon. ... I hear Brett
> > essentially asking for Netflix to do more for him than it does for big
> > ISPs, because his small rural business model can't compete with the big
> > guys.
>

Brett's concerns seem to center around his
ability to be cost-competitive with the big
guys in his area...which implies there *are*
big guys in his area to have to compete with.

If the big guys don't want to build into the
rural area, and aren't competing with Brett,
he can charge accordingly (the scenario
Scott outlines).  If the big guys *have* built
into the area where Brett is serving users,
then we're outside of Scott's model, and into
Benson's model, and it may well be a case
of the local bookstore not being able to compete
with Amazon anymore.

While having no competitors in an area might
suck for the *consumers*, I don't think it's the
situation that Brett is facing; I think he's talking
about trying to compete with large carriers who
have indeed built out into his area, and have a
large economy of scale on their side.

I could be wrong, though; I often am.

Thanks!

Matt