> > 2. It is wickedly expensive to run *anything* - wires, pipes, fiber > optic cables - to every house in a given area. The cable company has > already done so and subsidized it with their TV service. > > Another thing here is that the cities/municipalities have to provide "franchising" to the operators. Most of the time they are also paying "rent" to be on the poles be it city owned poles or electric/phone/whomever else owned.
> or force Comcast to "open their network" so that their competition can > use their cables to compete with them. That trick rarely works. > > This is entirely unrealistic in coax as compared to twisted pair. most cable companies are running their coax at near capacity for what the coax can handle (if you understand how RF works you understand how this can be so). for example if you have had comcast tv service in the past few years in this area you have more than likely been told that your analog service is going away and will have to get a digital box from them as your analog tuner in your tv will no longer work. An analog channel takes up roughly the same bandwidth as 4 High definition channels. For the company to be able to provide more high def channels they have had to rid the system of analog channels because the bandwidth is at or near max. bottom line, to even assume that cable companies are a government sanctioned monopoly is generally a falsehood. there are many places around the country where you have the option between 2 or more cable tv providers.. i believe NYC is one. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "NLUG" group. To post to this group, send email to nlug-talk@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to nlug-talk+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/nlug-talk?hl=en
