[PLUG-TALK] Government owned monopoly networks

[Paul Heinlein]

On Tue, 31 Jul 2012, Russell Senior wrote:

> Coming out of the dialup days, Portland had dozens and dozens of 
> ISPs, all competing on price, service and TOS.  When DSL rolled out, 
> they all had access to the infrastructure and could continue 
> competing.

It's fair to say that in the mid- to late-90s Portland was among the 
most competitive ISP markets in the country. Teleport, Aracnet, 
EasyStreet, Spire, Hevanet, RAINet and a dozen other ISPs were highly 
competitive, with knowledgable and savvy technical staffs.

When I travelled, I was often struck by sparse the ISP market was in 
other parts of the country, even in wealthy and tech-forward areas 
like Orange County.

I certainly don't want to return to the days of modems and their 
plaintive cries, but there can be no doubting Russell's assessment 
that competition in the ISP market has withered in the face of 
monopolized last-mile connections.

-- 
Paul Heinlein
heinlein at madboa.com
45°38' N, 122°6' W