A couple of comments below from my perspective... -Roger
On Fri, Oct 28, 2016 at 2:17 PM, <fiber...@mail.com> wrote: > Chuck wrote: > > They honestly expected Qwest and Comcast to ride their network. > What alternate reality do these people live in? > *That was never likely to happen because they are local infrastructure incumbents, although we did have AT&T for a while, and now have Windstream, so it is possible to attract national players if it is built as a carrier-class network with good SLAs and they don't have a strong infrastructure presence in the area that it would compete with. AT&T is non-existent and Windstream has a very limited presence in Utah so it doesn't threaten themselves in any way to ride UTOPIA.* > > > I personally am philosophically opposed to governments providing goods or > > services that private companies can do. Obviously streets are better > done > > by government. Arguably water and sewer. I have lived in cities with > two > > power companies. But all the rest should be done by commercial > providers. > Why do you draw the line at the utilities and the infrastructure you > listed? What makes them so special? > > *A lot of philosophical differences here. Every day fiber infrastructure looks more and more like water, sewer, power, roads, and other government provided services. I believe we will see far more government involvement in providing fiber infrastructure in the future because private companies are actually , but I understand why those who stand to lose the most would disagree.* > > > More importantly government should never compete with businesses. > > They have many unfair advantages. > What unfair advantages do you feel they have? > > Government businesses have to pay off debt, make payments in lieu of > taxes and absorb losses like everybody else. > *Government agencies benefit from tax exemption, bonding ability, and taxing/assessment authority unlink private companies. I can see why people feel like government has unfair advantages. However, at least in the example of UTOPIA, you can argue that because it is wholesale-only, it doesn't actually compete with anyone because the system is made available to any private company and doesn't provide services directly to the end-users.* > > Jared >
