SanJoseNerd
Premium
join:2002-07-24
San Jose, CA
| reply to David
Re: The other dumb question
said by David  :
Would they have to play by the same rules the business does already?? Ya know share lines and such.. I would imagine with any communications business(and yes police department radio towers have to still obey the FCC) still have to obey the FCC guidelines in regards to competition?? I would think just because a local goverment provides the service they have to...
Right now, telcos mostly have to share lines, while cablecos mostly don't have to share lines.
I would expect muni operations would have to obey the rules for cablecos. In terms of network architecture and the types of services offered, a muni operation is likely to be more similar to a cableco than a telco. Legally, a muni operation is very much like a cableco. A cableco operates under a franchise agreement with the local government, and therefore a cableco is, in a sense, a creation of the local government. A muni operation is also a creation of the local government, just with a different ownership structure.
As a practical matter, I think muni operations are much more likely to permit sharing than any of the cablecos. A muni operator doesn't own any television channels, production companies, music labels, and such; and therefore it has no economic incentive to steer customers to its own offerings and block out others. |
