Powered By IdeaScale
Login / Signup
Broadband.gov logo
« Back To Broadband.gov

christopher

User Profile Image christopher
Member since : Sep-11-2009 (Verified)
1 Ideas, 2 Comments, 8 Votes

User Activity Stream

Ideas Posted

At a minimum, communities must be allowed to invest in their own networks. No community should be hamstrung by federal or state laws that prevent it from building a network when the community decides existing options are inferior and harming their vitality. Forcing some communities to beg for connectivity is degrading and un-American. If a community wants to build it themselves, they should have that right.
Displaying 1 - 25 of 234 Ideas
12345678910Next »

Comments Posted

christopher 6 months ago
Buses compete with taxis, libraries with book stores, public education with private, ups and fedex with the post office, police with private security firms, public golf courses with private, public pools with private. Such a blanket statement makes a better soundbite than public policy.

In rural areas, there are often publicly owned liquor stores and lumber yards because the private sector wasn't interested. These areas would all be worse off if we firmly zoned off private sector activities and public.

When something is essential for a community, policies that force the community to beg others to build it for them - especially when the private sector is emphatically not interested - is folly.
christopher 6 months ago
Fortunately, this is done. The '96 Telecom Act made it illegal for cities to give an exclusive franchise. Thus, areas that remain uncompetitive are because other providers see no profit by entering into competition. There is no legal barrier preventing them from offering services, just an economic one. This is the major problem with these networks - competition is not something that happens naturally due to the high costs of building a competing network.