Once upon a time, William Herrin <bill@herrin.us> said:
A comparable Internet setup would be where the municipality implements a local network distribution service and then you buy from the Internet provider of your choice.
That's sort of how it works where I live. The city-owned non-profit utility company wanted to build out a network to support smart metering, better monitoring, etc. They contracted out to someone to build fiber to the curb throughout the city, got their piece for the smart meters and such, and then leased access to anyone that wants it. They signed Google Fiber as the initial carrier, who then has people come run the fiber from the curb to the house and install the ONT and router. I think GFiber is the only company selling service city-wide on it, although I think there are some companies doing business services in some areas. It's not quite the same as the multi-vendor electricity setup, where only one company actually delivers the amps to your house, but kind of close. So far, the old-school carriers (AT&T, Comcast, and WoW) I think have ignored the utility's network. About three months after the utility fiber was buried on my street and I got Google Fiber, AT&T came through digging up yards again to run their own fiber. They then advertised promotional rates that were $20/month more than GFiber (and the AT&T rate required a bundle and a contract, while GFiber required neither). I can't imagine they got many takers except from people who just stay with AT&T out of momentum. I'd think that eventually, AT&T/Comcast/WoW would switch over to the utility's network, at least in new developments, but who knows. I have no idea how the prices works out for them vs. building and maintaining their own thing. We've had two cable TV companies available at most addresses since the mid-1980s, which meant we had some of the lowest cable prices in the country for a long time. About the time Dish/DirecTV cranked up, I think both recognized they could get away with raising their rates to something competitve with the satellite providers. No actual collusion or anything (probably), but our cable rates went up really fast there for a while. -- Chris Adams <cma@cmadams.net>