FCC proposes higher speed goals (100/20 Mbps) for USF providers

Thu Jun 2 14:36:16 UTC 2022

I live pretty deep in a rural area, and there are only about 3 or 4 houses
in the square mile I live in.  My electric service comes from a co-op, and
I'd be darn well pleased if that co-op could install and provide layer 2
service over fiber back to some local pick-up point where I could meet one
or more internet providers.

On Thu, Jun 2, 2022 at 9:44 AM Masataka Ohta <
mohta at necom830.hpcl.titech.ac.jp> wrote:

> Sean Donelan wrote:
>
> >> USF is great for rural, but it has turned medium density and suburban
> >> areas into connectivity wastelands.
> >
> > Carrier & cable lobbying organizations say that free market competition
> > by multiple providers provide adequate service in those areas.
>
> That's simply untrue, because of natural regional monopoly.
>
> Competitive providers must invest same amount of money to cover
> a certain area by their cables but their revenues are proportional
> to their local market shares, which means only the provider with
> the largest share can survive.
>
> In urban areas where local backbone costs, which are proportional
> to market shares, exceeds cabling costs, there may be some
> competitions. But, the natural regional monopoly is still
> possible.
>
> Still, providers relying on older technologies will be
> competitively replaced by other providers using newer
> technologies, which is why DSL providers have been
> disappearing and cable providers will disappear.
>
> In a long run, only fiber providers will survive.
>
> The problem, then, is that, with PON, there is no local
> competition even if fibers are unbundled, because,
> providers with smaller share can find smaller number
> of subscribers around PON splitters, as, usually,
> fiber cost between the splitters and stations are
> same, which is why fiber providers prefer PON over SS.
>
> But, such preference is deadly for rural areas where
> only one or two homes exist around PON splitters,
> in which case, SS is less costly.
>
>                                         Masataka Ohta
>
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