NNSquad - Network Neutrality Squad
[ NNSquad ] Re: Competition
At 12:47 AM 3/1/2008, Benson Schliesser wrote: >If you look at prices in the carrier-wholesale market for bandwidth >you'll see that they've been falling for quite some time. Actually, Benson, this is not so. Due to consolidation among the wholesale fiber backbone providers, bandwidth at wholesale has actually gone up. We're being quoted higher prices for a DS-3 than we were in 2005. And with ILECs -- the trolls at the bridge -- jacking up the cost of the leased lines used for backhaul, ISPs are paying more for less... just as sites such as YouTube are leading users to demand much more bandwidth from us. That's why we absolutely must conserve our bandwidth. We can't waste it; can't allow it to be hogged; can't allow companies like Vuze to siphon it off via P2P without paying for it. Without P2P mitigation, competitive ISPs are dead. >So... Are network services in the US a natural monopoly? Reed Hundt has made statements to that effect; see http://telephonyonline.com/broadband/news/reed-hundt-auction-0228/ We obviously do not agree with him, of course, or we would not be in this business. --Brett Glass