On Jan 30, 2013, at 5:11 PM, Jay Ashworth <j...@baylink.com> wrote: > [ One of a batch of replies to today's traffic; I was busy yanking a > 750GB drive out of the grave all day. --jra ] > > ----- Original Message ----- >> From: "Owen DeLong" <o...@delong.com> > > [ me: ] >>> It rings true to me, in general, and I would go that way... but >>> there is >>> a sting in that tail: Can I reasonably expect that Road Runner will >>> in fact >>> be technically equipped and inclined to meet me to get my residents >>> as >>> subscribers? Especially if they're already built HFC in much to all >>> of >>> my municipality? >> >> It doesn't actually matter. You don't necessarily need to be the only >> wholesale >> offering, you just need to be open to all service providers. This >> means that >> if Road Runner wants to pay for their own infrastructure instead of >> using yours, >> then that will increase their costs and likely make it harder for them >> to compete >> with ISPs (and other services) that choose to use your infrastructure. > > It does actually matter, Owen, for the specific build I'm looking at, > since *Road Runner already has the city built*; they can do GHz CATV > with all the toys, and at least 25/5 cable modem, if not 50/15. > You don't think some small scrappy provider using muni fiber with good customer service couldn't come in and start collecting customers from Road Runner? I bet they could.
Having muni fiber with an open access policy makes it pretty easy to stand up a local ISP without a lot of up-front investment. Having a single incumbent doesn't strike me as being particularly dangerous to the practicality of muni fiber. > That's pretty competitive, and already includes triple play. > Competitive by today's pathetic american standards, sure. You wouldn't be able to find a single taker in SE, KR, or many other parts of the developed world. > What sort of money a build needs to make is of course largely a question > of how good a sales job you did to your city commission, but I shouldn't > think a small, largely residential, community is gonna make it on *just* > businesses and geeks. No, but most such communities, given a choice, the incumbent wouldn't have too much difficulty losing customers to a competitor. Owen
