On Friday, March 21, 2014 04:51:07 AM Owen DeLong wrote:
At some point, we will need to recognize that for the population densities in the vast majority of the united States (including most urban areas), Layer 1 is effectively a natural monopoly and you will rarely get more than one provider installing any given media type. An independent layer 1 provider required to provide equal access to all competing layer 2+ providers in each are would drive increased competition in L2+ services.
What some governments are doing in Asia-Pac and Africa is funding national optical backbones that can be shared by all. The biggest mistake they make, however, is either contract the incumbent to run these national backbone, or get the incumbents and vendors to sub-contract someone of their choosing to run these networks. The general idea, however, is a likely solution to neutralizing the physical layer. Mark.