[–] Daeavorn 0 points 1 point 1 point (+1|-0) ago
This is one issue I wish Trump would remove regulations on. They dont deserve special privileges. If they want to remain private industry then they should be forced to compete with anyone that can compete. I hate this government mandated monopoly bullshit.
[–] Paranoidroid 0 points 4 points 4 points (+4|-0) ago
Only the hopelessly romantic or complete fools thought GOOG was some altruistic savior of internet access for Everyman. They are a company is business to make money, and building out hardwired internet access across a city is expensive as fuck, where any possible dividends are a long way down the road.
[–] Ghetto_Shitlord 0 points 3 points 3 points (+3|-0) ago
Capitalism punishes altruism, heavily.
[–] Vloorshad 0 points 5 points 5 points (+5|-0) ago
They're out to make a buck, but I think I'll be seeing a return on their endeavor soon. I live far enough out that I wouldn't get Google Fiber for decades to come, but the pressure they've applied in a couple of their markets has resulted in the old telecoms expanding their service into rural areas to recover losses. If all goes well I'll be upgrading my 1.5Mb connection to something in the 50Mb range within a couple of years.
[–] flarflar 0 points 4 points 4 points (+4|-0) ago
Oh I feel you. 3mb here and it's wireless transmitter from the local water tower great little local company though they have comped me every time it has went out. Longest outage was over night do to lighting frying on there end. I do miss blazing speeds of the city but I don't miss being able to touch my neighbors house within my house if I tried
[–] busyvote 0 points 3 points 3 points (+3|-0) ago
That sounds sort of like the situation in the UK - BT Openreach, who own all the pre-existing and therefore the lion's share of last-mile delivery are forced by regulation to rent lines to any ISP/telecom at semi-"reasonable" rates or to allow co-lo installation of competitor's cabinets in their exchanges if they want to provide their own last-mile delivery. BT retail is at least theoretically a separate company and has to take lines from BT Openreach on basically the same pricing model as anyone else.
Doesn't quite work and it might have been better if the infrastructure were directly publicly regulated instead of being privately owned, since the relationship between BT retail / Openreach is still a little too cosy to make it truly competitive... but at least the situation is way better than the US sounds - there are usually at least 4 ISPs to choose from even in most rural areas. (Though obviously fiber investment is kinda slow in the sticks).
[–] ShinyVoater ago
Open access networks really are the solution: we saw free dialup internet way back in the day because anybody could dial anybody over the phone lines everybody already payed for. It's not 100% the same, but bringing prices down to the cost of delivery(for those willing to put up with ads) is something we can only dream of otherwise.