RE: [Nolug] BellSouth Wants to Rig the Internet

Hello.

You are right - it isn't a monopoly. Other providers are free to provide
service also. On the other hand, they aren't able to freely sit their
equipment on top of city owned light poles, use free city power, and get their
backhaul backbone donated to them. Also, someone has to pay for the link to
the Internet itself.

Since I don't provide wireless, it isn't direct competition to me perhaps, but
it certainly is competition. I've already had customers call asking me why
they should get the Internet from me when the City of NO is giving it away for
free.

As for the drop to 128K - the City is already fighting to have that
restriction removed.

I don't agree 100% with BellSouth's position on this matter, but I do agree in
so far that I think that this is unfair competition.

Consider: If you sold hamburgers and the City of NO just announced that they
were going to be giving away free hamburgers, how would you feel?

Also consider: If the City of New Orleans was so concerned about Internet
access for its citizens why didn't they bother to publicize the free dial-in
offers made by me and other ISPs? Jefferson didn't either, by the way.

John

    John Souvestre - Southern Star - (504) 888-3348 - www.sstar.com

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-nolug@nolug.org [mailto:owner-nolug@nolug.org] On Behalf Of -k.
Sent: Monday, December 05, 2005 12:34 PM
To: nolug@nolug.org
Subject: RE: [Nolug] BellSouth Wants to Rig the Internet

--- John Souvestre <johns@sstar.com> wrote:
> I don't agree. :-) The City decided to position themselves as > a
competitor to BellSouth
and other ISP's (me included). I > don't see anything fair about a tax
subsidized monopoly
as a > competitor.

Is this really the case though? First it's not a tax subsidized monopoly it's
a service from the
city government. No one would accuse the city of New Orleans of having a
monopoly on garbage cans
simply because they provide garbage cans around some areas of the city. This
isn't the same thing
as true public monopolies such as power, gas or water services that we all
know and love. There is
no legal impediment, to my knowledge, for a private enterprise to try the same
thing.

Second is this really a competitor to your DSL service? The bandwidth will
only be 512 kbps until
the city's state of emergency is lifted (whenever that is) and then will drop
to a measly 128
kbps. BellSouth has already, apparently, lobbied the state government to pass
a law limiting
publicly provided internet connectivity speeds in this way to avoid
competition from
municipalities. I think, as i would argue BellSouth does to some degree, that
ubiquitous internet
connectivity will only increase people's desire for broadband services.

I do understand you apprehension about this turn of events. If i were in your
shoes i could
imagine thinking the same thing.

-k.

                
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Received on 12/05/05