----- Original Message -----
From: "Stephen Sprunk" <stephen@sprunk.org>
By having the city run L2 over our L1, we can accomplish that; unlike L3, I don't believe it actually needs to be a separate company; I expect most ISP business to be at L2; L1 is mostly an accomodation to potential larger ISPs who want to do it all themselves.
Or FiOS. :-)
We have a philosophical disagreement here. I fully support public ownership of public ownership of "natural" monopolies, and the fiber plant itself (L1) certainly qualifies.
However, running L2 (or L3) over that fiber is _not_ a natural monopoly, so I do _not_ support public ownership. At most, I could stomach a "provider of last resort" to guarantee resident access to useful services, in the IMHO unlikely event that only one (or zero) private players showed up, or a compelling need to provide some residents (eg. the elderly or indigent, schools, other public agencies, etc.) with below-cost services.
I dunno; I tend to buy the arguments that there is a difference; as long as the L2 access is itself sold to comers at cost, including the internal accounting between the fiber and L2 sides of the house. I don't even plan to offer quantity discounts. :-)
(Note that inside wiring is a completely separate issue, and carriers _will_ have to train techs on how to do that since few are familiar with fiber, but that is an optional service they can charge extra for. The L1 provider's responsibility ends at the NIU on an outside wall, same as an ILEC's, so it's not their problem in the first place.)
The L2 might end there, too, if I decide on outside ONTs, rather than an optical jackblock inside.
I think the ILECs got this part right: provide a passive NIU on the outside wall, which forms a natural demarc that the fiber owner can test to. If an L2 operator has active equipment, put it inside--and it would be part of the customer-purchased (or -leased) equipment when they turn up service.
Yes, but that means the ISP has to drill holes in walls *and push fiber jumpers through them*; I'm not at all happy with that idea. Cheers, -- jra -- Jay R. Ashworth Baylink jra@baylink.com Designer The Things I Think RFC 2100 Ashworth & Associates http://baylink.pitas.com 2000 Land Rover DII St Petersburg FL USA #natog +1 727 647 1274