[TriLUG] TWC "Existing Customer Promotion"

[Cristóbal Palmer]

On Monday, March 17, 2014 at 10:57 AM, Aaron Joyner wrote:

> If we treat internet
> service as a utility, which implies we regulate a single monopoly provider
> or have the state provide internet service directly, do you think there
> will be more Rent Seeking behavior, and a higher likelihood of Regulatory
> Capture, or less?


I think there are other alternatives to treating internet /service/ as a utility. For example, we could treat the base infrastructure (eg. optical fibre cables) the same way we treat roads. In cities, some roads are public and some are private. Some are city-managed and some are state-managed. You could then have different service providers (by analogy: taxi services, delivery vans, private cars) that run on that infrastructure.

I’d be interested to hear if you think that such a split would have the same negative impacts (for the public) in terms of rent seeking and regulatory capture. If you do think that, why do you think that? Please note: I do not think our management of roads in all jurisdictions in this state is ideal. It’s just that, compared to other states, we’re doing a disastrous job of managing broadband.

Cheers,
--  
Cristóbal Palmer
cmpalmer.org