Level 3 blames Internet slowdowns on ISPs' refusal to upgrade networks | Ars Technica

Fri Mar 21 03:58:18 UTC 2014

On Thu, Mar 20, 2014 at 4:17 PM, Bryan Fields <Bryan at bryanfields.net> wrote:
> On 3/20/14, 12:34 PM, Blake Hudson wrote:
>> The solution seems to be competition or regulation.
> I'd prefer competition to regulation.

When regulation is done well, competition is the result. Consider the
following hypothetical regulation:

1. Any company which deploys communication cable in a public
right-of-way is forbidden to sell data storage, data content or
services delivering specific data content of any kind including: web
sites or web hosting services, email services, audio and visual
recordings, television channels.

2. Any company which employs communication cable in a public
right-of-way is required to sell its services on a reasonable and
non-discriminatory (RAND) basis to all who wish to buy.

What would be the result?

Incidentally, this isn't a fresh idea. The FCC first got the notion
over 50 years ago and more or less regulated telecommunications that
way for a quarter of a century.

Regards,
Bill Herrin

-- 
William D. Herrin ................ herrin at dirtside.com  bill at herrin.us
3005 Crane Dr. ...................... Web: <http://bill.herrin.us/>
Falls Church, VA 22042-3004