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This page contains all of the posts and discussion on MemeStreams referencing the following web page: Fiber to the People. You can find discussions on MemeStreams as you surf the web, even if you aren't a MemeStreams member, using the Threads Bookmarklet.

Fiber to the People
by flynn23 at 11:18 am EST, Dec 4, 2003

] But as McAdams nicely puts it (so nicely that we might
] call this the McAdams theorem), you don't monopolize
] yourself.

An essay by Lawrence Lessig on the virtues of muni owned telco.

What Larry misses though is that while this might be a better solution than what the FCC is doing to enable the ILEC's to control telco, it is not the *best* solution.

It is a good point that muni owned telco can be an enabler to the community. However, muni operated _anything_ is usually the lowest of the low. Look at all the other examples: healtcare and human services, education, even garbage collection. All of these muni operated services are pathetic when compared with market operated alternatives. Yes, it doesn't make sense to deploy 4 fiber network taps to every home, just as it doesn't make sense to deploy 4 electricity taps. But where those packets of light and sine waves of electricity come from is another matter alltogether.

If you really want the solution, it's that the US government should mandate that all PLANT be owned by the people. The services which run above layer 1 can be anybody. This is no different than how we manage other key infrastructure (roads, pipelines, spacecraft, etc). It would totally eliminate the grid lock we face with the RBOCs, re-energize competition and consumer choice, and you could have a FTTH network cross country in a few short years rather than waiting decades in playing cat and mouse. Alas, this will never happen.

RE: Fiber to the People
by bucy at 1:30 pm EST, Dec 4, 2003

] If you really want the solution, it's that the US government
] should mandate that all PLANT be owned by the people. The
] services which run above layer 1 can be anybody. This is no
] different than how we manage other key infrastructure (roads,
] pipelines, spacecraft, etc). It would totally eliminate the
] grid lock we face with the RBOCs, re-energize competition and
] consumer choice, and you could have a FTTH network cross
] country in a few short years rather than waiting decades in
] playing cat and mouse. Alas, this will never happen.

I've said this before. Have a big colo facility that the fiber comes back to that anyone can lease access to.

RE: Fiber to the People
by flynn23 at 2:44 pm EST, Dec 4, 2003

bucy wrote:
]
] ] If you really want the solution, it's that the US government
]
] ] should mandate that all PLANT be owned by the people. The
] ] services which run above layer 1 can be anybody. This is no
] ] different than how we manage other key infrastructure
] (roads,
] ] pipelines, spacecraft, etc). It would totally eliminate the
] ] grid lock we face with the RBOCs, re-energize competition
] and
] ] consumer choice, and you could have a FTTH network cross
] ] country in a few short years rather than waiting decades in
] ] playing cat and mouse. Alas, this will never happen.
]
] I've said this before. Have a big colo facility that the
] fiber comes back to that anyone can lease access to.

Essentially, that is what would happen. In fact, that is what happens today. The problem is that a non-cooperative interest owns the plant that you are attempting to traverse. Sure, you can maybe get it for wholesale. Maybe. At ridiculously inflated pricing. And your installation times are 3x what they provide to themselves. Plus that's probably copper, not fiber. Cuz remember, after 2005, the RBOC isn't required by law to unbundle their fiber infrastructure.

This only works if you remove control of the plant and make it publically owned. Until then, we will continue to play the same games and we will fall behind countries like Korea and even Canada in deployment of broadband services.

Fiber to the People
by Jeremy at 1:49 am EST, Dec 5, 2003

For a long time now, the FCC has been pushing the idea that ownership matters. That might be right about cable and telecom companies, but it doesn't follow that AOL and Comcast are the most efficient providers of high-speed network access.

[With asset-based telecom,] we might learn again why GM doesn't own the highways, and why neither cable nor telecom companies should own IP access.

In the latest issue of Wired Magazine, Larry Lessig introduces the world to asset-based telecom.

"Thanks, Larry! I didn't know!"

Hardly. The Cook Report has been covering this area for eons now. Search my Memestream for asset based telecom.

That said, I'll be coming back to the "ownership matters" meme soon. Stay tuned.