On Thu, Dec 23, 2010 at 10:17:46AM -0800, Joel Jaeggli wrote: [...]
The fact that I can get a wavelength to county dump in Eugene OR the composting facility in Palo Alto doesn't really do anything for the residential access market.
Why not? You have to start with connectivity *somewhere*. If the economics work out, *someone* will build the residential access market from those access points. The first phone in a community was boon to everyone. Later, the local communications were build out to encompass others. The last mile ended up getting regulated to ensure everyone had access to the new technology. Unfortunately, the regulatory regime got based on the service (voice) rather than the infrastructure -- because no one ever guessed that the two would be separable. Some places could have local infrastructure monopolies run by municpalities, others might be run by local co-ops, the state, county, or even the feds. And they all might start with municipal fiber to the city dump that allows others access lamdas...