[ NNSquad ] Re: [IP] Re: a wise word from a long time network person -- Merccurynews report on Stanford hearing

[Lauren Weinstein <lauren@vortex.com>]

Without a doubt, the lack of broad, meaningful, effective
competition in the U.S. commercially-oriented Internet "last mile"
marketplace is a key factor that causes or exacerbates a wide
range of problems under discussion here.

--Lauren--
NNSquad Moderator

 - - -

> I don't understand why we should accept the premise that an ISP can't  
> survive unless they oversell their bandwidth, or the (seemingly  
> implicit) premise that a free and open marketplace for Internet  
> service is unattainable.  As with many other problems we currently  
> face, the real stumbling blocks lie in the realms of economics and  
> politics, not research or engineering.  If you separated out the  
> installation and maintenance of the last mile and treated it as a  
> matter of societal infrastructure, rather than a ball to be batted  
> around between the cable and phone companies, the situation would  
> abruptly become a lot more manageable.