Re: [MLUG] Oh, no...

["Jonathan King" <EMAIL:PROTECTED>]

On 5/9/06, Mike Miller <EMAIL:PROTECTED> wrote:
> On Tue, 9 May 2006, Michael wrote:
>
> > Umm last I checked the American taxpayer has sunk billions of dollars
> > into the telephone and data infrastructure. THAT is why these companies
> > shouldn't be allowed to blackmail people into paying extra.
>
> Is that why Mediacom could get away with investing only $1.7 billion in
> their own business over 10 years?  They pretend that is a lot of money.
> It's nothing -- they are liars.

1) Michael doesn't know what he's talking about.
2) Mike Miller isn't exactly paying attention, either.  Mediacomm is a
new-ish cable company that got where it is today by buying out other
cable companies (or some of the major ones) in second and third tier
markets.  To know what the actual level of investment in the
infrastructure is over this time horizon, you have to know a lot more
than what Mediacomm themselves did.

That said, the CEO of Mediacomm is a big fat nepotistic idiot, and
always has been.  His argument is entirely specious.  The government
doesn't tell the gas company what to charge for gas, but they would
get involved if (say) they charged different prices for gas to
different kinds of customers, and everybody would see that that was
wrong.  What Mediacomm and the like want to do is charge more for some
packets than others.  Interestingly enough, the packets they want to
charge more for are the ones that would compete with their own
non-bandwidth services.  In other words, what they precisely want to
do is make the market place less competitive than it is now.  On my
planet, where the sky is beautiful crystal green color, bandwidth
providers are regulated monopolies and are not allowed to directly
provide *any* of the services you get.  In other words, the cable
company would be the cable company, but you'd buy programming from one
or more (of likely several competing) programming companies.

Now, that's a pretty wild idea for the current cable industry
situation...except that as we get more and more bandwidth into the
home, that's EXACTLY what we could be aimiing for.  I buy packet
bandwidth from the cable company (as does the program provider) and 
programs from the program provider *or* maybe I just surf the 'net the
whole time.  There's nothing wrong with this picture, it's what every
customer wants, and it's exactly the kind of competitive landscape
that the cable companies don't want.  If Republican lawmakers (who
have been bought up by the telcos and cable companies) manage to trash
network neutrality, I want every wanna-be libertarian Republican on
this list to scream bloody murder and vote them all out of office.

I know you all hate it when I hold back like this, but I just can't help myself.

jking

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