[Cialug] Iowa Municipal Telecom Legisation

[Dave Weis]

> > I don't agree that a having a municipal service would limit choice.
> If a municipal service can operate at a loss subsidize by tax dollars 
> (which most of them do) how could you possibly expect competition?

Ahh, but telcos do that also. POTS dialtone service subsidized many portions 
of the business. Not every portion of any business is immediately 
profitable, whether municipal or private.

> > Yes, the telco environment isn't the most open, but it is more
> > "socialized" than a municipal ISP.
> Hardly.  Teleco is regulated, but is still operates in a competitive 
> market with competitors (in areas that are capable of producing profit, 
> some areas are not) and are forced by the government to open their 
> networks to the competition. (see ILEC and CLEC).  A municipal ISP 
> would be a government entity subjected to whatever rules they fancy.

ILECs operate with much less oversight than the public imagines. SBC for 
example gets multimillion dollar fines for anticompetitive behavior and just 
pays them as a cost of doing business. Nothing in the ILEC-CLEC relationship 
is steered to the benefit of the CLEC, especially after the TRO expiration 
and the removal of most of the enterprise loops (OCn and up) and UNE-P pots 
services.

I'm guessing that the two of us will disagree violently on many points since 
we are on opposite sides of the LEC spectrum...

dave


-- 
Dave Weis
Internet Solver, Inc
http://www.internetsolver.com/