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Once Again, Telco Told That It Can't Stop Muni Fiber
from the how-dare-they-want-competition dept
Telco monopolists really are amazing sometimes. For years, we've been seeing them abuse their monopolies, offer poor (and expensive) service thanks to a lack of competition -- and then freak out, when they're actually challenged in the marketplace. And, of course, nothing gets them more worked up than the threat of some sort of "municipal" competitor. Time and time again, they go to court to block any muni-fiber offering, and time and time again they lose. The latest is TDS Telecom having its case dismissed in Monticello, Minnesota, where voters have approved a bond issue to set up a municipal fiber network. Such networks have been tremendously successful elsewhere.
TDS, of course, claims that it should be illegal for the government to compete with them, but they leave out many of the details. First, they have no real competition, because the government granted them a monopoly. So they're already in many ways the beneficiary of a gov't program. To claim that no one else can benefit from the gov't is simply anti-competitive and ignores the monopoly they themselves received. Second, since this is a bond issue, there's no taxpayer money at issue -- and the citizens of the town approved it. Finally, perhaps if TDS didn't rest on its monopoly laurels, it wouldn't now be facing competition. All this has made clear was that TDS failed to deliver what the town wanted, so the town got together and came up with a solution. Good for them.
TDS, of course, claims that it should be illegal for the government to compete with them, but they leave out many of the details. First, they have no real competition, because the government granted them a monopoly. So they're already in many ways the beneficiary of a gov't program. To claim that no one else can benefit from the gov't is simply anti-competitive and ignores the monopoly they themselves received. Second, since this is a bond issue, there's no taxpayer money at issue -- and the citizens of the town approved it. Finally, perhaps if TDS didn't rest on its monopoly laurels, it wouldn't now be facing competition. All this has made clear was that TDS failed to deliver what the town wanted, so the town got together and came up with a solution. Good for them.
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I live in Monticello, MN.
We just got done repairing the front lawn from TDS digging it up. I really cannot see the city digging up the lawns again to just lay their own cable (right next to the DS fiber).
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I live in St. Paul MN
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Re: I live in St. Paul MN
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Even when they lost, they still won
"In Mitchell's view, this was the only point of the lawsuit; even in defeat, Bridgewater has tied the project up for six months and delayed it into next year. TDS, for its part, insists to us that it simply wanted to protect taxpayers from covering an expensive system that TDS itself could operate more efficiently."
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20081009-city-owned-fiber-network-a-go-as-judg e-tosses-telco-lawsuit.html
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HUZZAH!
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No tax money?
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Re: No tax money?
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Re: Re: No tax money?
Here is where it becomes very tricky... In 18 short months, the City of Monticello will be faced with a great dilemma. What happens when the customer wants "more?" You want to provide video over the network? Well, there are a variety of ways to do this and all are going to start at over $1 million for basic infrastructure. Maybe deliver "redistributed" content? Well, that will be only a small fraction of what is available -- less than basic cable and will be very complex in what is allowed, what is not, and at what cost (ESPN will charge over $3 for every home passed... not served).
What the City is giving is Internet access at fast speeds, not services. Wholesale services will cost money, are complex, and require great deal of capital to buy with a limited and confined customer base. It all looks good on paper and will give everyone a headache in two years.
The incumbents won't look so bad in 2011 after all.
AGE
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How about some links showing what the experience has been like?
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Power to the People in Monticello
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In France pay 30euros, around 45 usd
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Government owned wires = Pandora's Box
While I'm against the Cable & Telco monopolies in place, they're still better than government owned lines. At least when the private sector owns the lines, you can sue them for crippling or blocking service, but with government owned, they gan begin blocking and censoring all they want.
First it will begin innocently, blocking illegal porn sites and hate sites, then overseas gambling and slowly things get blocked as they see fit. Of course by then the commercial lines have gone out of business and you have nobody to turn to but your own censoring government, and guess who wins that battle?
And even if you can live in that world, the fact that the government takes away YOUR paycheck to start commercial business that competes with it's citizen's tax paying employees is dirty as well. Government has NO place in the business world, especially when they regulate it. At least in the commercial business world people are actually held accountable for running their business poorly, a government ran business can simply throw more tax money at inefficient business models and/or embezzlement.
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