----- Original Message -----
From: "Aaron" <aaron@wholesaleinternet.net>
So let me throw out a purely hypothetical scenario to the collective:
What do you think the consequences to a municipality would be if they laid fiber to every house in the city and gave away internet access for free? Not the WiFi builds we have today but FTTH at gigabit speeds for free?
Do you think the LECs would come unglued?
Of course they would. But the real problem is *this shit's expensive*. You can assume $8-1200 per passing, if you fiber the entire town at once (my example was 12000 passings, 3-pr, in 2.3 sqmi). Then you're going to have to operate the core, which will take power and at least 5 people to man it 24/7. And finally, figure on at least 4-6 multi-10GE uplinks, and those things don't exactly grow on trees -- there's no sense in providing 1G/1G if people can't actually use it. So there's a bunch of sunk cost, and a bigger bunch of recurring costs. And where's that money come from? Yup: local taxes, mostly property. So you're charging everyone anyway; TANSTAAFL. Cheers, -- jra -- Jay R. Ashworth Baylink jra@baylink.com Designer The Things I Think RFC 2100 Ashworth & Associates http://www.bcp38.info 2000 Land Rover DII St Petersburg FL USA BCP38: Ask For It By Name! +1 727 647 1274