[ale] Comcast Caps Data at 250G/Month

[Jim Popovitch]

On Sun, Sep 7, 2008 at 01:17, aaron <aaron at pd.org> wrote:
> So who, besides Commiecast, can utilize the coax wires that we
> allow the company to run through our public rights of way??

Who paid for the coax and the trenching?

> I think Georgia Power has a marginal monopoly on the electric cables
> we grant them permission to run through those same public rights of
> way as well, but there are some gray areas due to buyback rules for
> private and co-op generated electricity.
>
> Both the phone lines and the natural gas pipes have been regulated
> to promote competitive access to the delivery system, and I would
> argue that the same needs to be done to the same extent with Cable
> TV and Power grids.

Gas pipelines were mostly paid and laid by Government organizations.,
Telephone (landline) companies received Government funding for their
lines.

> (Of course, AT&T is aggressively seeking to
> halt competitive access to phone lines on the argument that the
> same rules aren't being applied to communications delivery by the
> cable monopolies -- the monopoly pair is very good at playing one
> hand washes the other).
>
> There also needs to be a clear wall of separation between content
> suppliers and delivery service providers

That wall can only be built by a Government that has a claim to
substantial ownership or funding.  In no way does granting the
right-of-way (it is a paper contract after all) explicitly imply
rights to future decision making, unless those rights are spelled out
in the contract   Find the contract your local government signed with
the provider and let us know what the specifics are, otherwise....

-Jim P.