rpsmith
join:2004-04-19
Huntington Beach, CA
| $1,000? What's the big deal?
This is investment, folks. All companies do it. An ROI of a few years doesn't strike me as a bad deal at all, for them. They aren't going to raise prices because of this. Cable companies invested too, wiring fiber and coax for HFC networks (that they have a monopoly on, lest anyone forget). Probably that job was pretty expensive too, yet the price/bandwidth ratio keeps going down.
We need both cable and ilec's. Despite the fact that telecom plants are inherently monopolistic in nature (the "why wire twice" problem), the initial focus of ilecs on voice and cable on video has (almost accidentally) given us two viable competitors, and now we are realizing the fruits of that as customers. I don't think we will see bandwidth prices going up--much more likely they will fall with time, in adjusted dollars. |
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nasadude
join:2001-10-05
Rockville, MD
 ·Comcast
| two competitors is called an duopoly, not that far removed from monopoly. What's to prevent the ILECs and cablecos from having a "gentleman's agreement" to not compete in each others area?
Plus, we've seen what the ILECs effect on cable pricing has been - zip, zero, zilch, nada (comcast, anyway).
With the FCC ready to exempt ILEC fiber from sharing requirements, they will be the only game in town when the fiber is laid. As long as there is no meaningful competition, prices will ultimately go up and stay up.
The major, if not only, reason for the great prices of broadband in Japan, Korea, etc is COMPETITION. As long as there is no meaningful competition in U.S. broadband, prices will stay high. |
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footballdude
Premium
join:2002-08-13
Imperial, MO
| said by nasadude  :
What's to prevent the ILECs and cablecos from having a "gentleman's agreement" to not compete in each others area?
Greed. Ego. You ever met a corporate CEO? They ain't a bunch of shrinking violets. |
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rpsmith
join:2004-04-19
Huntington Beach, CA
| reply to nasadude
said by nasadude :
two competitors is called an duopoly, not that far removed from monopoly. What's to prevent the ILECs and cablecos from having a "gentleman's agreement" to not compete in each others area?
So what's the solution? A repeat of the DSL fiasco? Spell it out. Frankly, I think the duopoly will work out OK. When FTTH gets here, cable will lower prices and build out their own networks. |
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