Hi, That is sorta what I meant by "as long as you regulated agreements between ISPs", although that is a bit vague, I admit. Service providers should not be granted monopolies by the town, and they should not be allowed to form trust-like agreements to limit competition. In a situation where only one set of lines can be run, the company who is going to run them should be required to offer bandwidth to competitors at a fair market rate. On a population basis, though, I think that most people in the US have at least two internet service options (DSL and cable). I know that I at least have those two options (Lexington MA), and I believe that I have more than one cable option on top of this. Every place I have lived in the US had at least these two options (Ithaca NY - New York, NY, - Philadelphia, PA - Lexington, MA - Scranton, PA) Sean On Thu, Sep 24, 2009 at 10:35 AM, M.L. wrote: > On Wed, Sep 23, 2009 at 12:01 PM, Sean Breheny wrote: >> How likely is this to be a problem? I don't know. It would seem that >> competition could prevent this - as long as you regulated agreements >> between ISPs. There are probably also much more subtle aspects like >> search engine results. >> >> Sean > > Yes, competition would fix it if most people had access to alternate > services that were equivalent in features. > In most places there is no real competition. If you are rural enough > not to get cable TV your option is probably DSL from the phone > company. They charge line fees so that competitors cannot compete on > price. Cable companies have similar deals. My area (Brookline, MA) is > of an extremely rare type in the US because I have three options - > municipal wifi, cable, and DSL. The DSL is slow, the cable is > expensive, and the WiFi is spotty. We should be able to get FIOS soon. > (expensive too) > > If you have monopolies I don't see how it is fair, prudent, or > intelligent to not have government regulation. > > -- > Martin K. > -- > http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive > View/change your membership options at > http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist > -- http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist