[GRLUG] NOT LINUX - net neutrality

[Michael Mol]

On Fri, Sep 23, 2011 at 1:36 PM, Bob Kline <bob.kline at gmail.com> wrote:
> And of course few ISPs are
> truly independent of the big
> players, who own the backbones.

Who do you define as the big players? Comcast and AT&T?

What about XO? Hurricane Electric? Global Crossings?

The majority of public complaints I hear about are about tier 2 ISPs
with a bent towards consumer services. Those are the ones people are
calling the "big players." They're not the ones who control the bulk
of the backbone.

My VPS provider is shortly getting a 1Gb/s unmetered pipe from
Hurricane Electric for $1k/mo. That's considered cheap.

> Those have to be paid for too.
> Odd however that Google puts a
> 1Gbps system in Kansas, and doesn't
> seem to worry about the cost.  In fact
> does so as a test case should Internet
> neutrality, which it depends on, totally
> breaks down.
> And there are towns like Lafayette, LA,
> which have their own fiber Internet, and
> charge $58 a month for 50 Mbps - full
> duplex!
> Yes, they too use the same backbones
> as everyone else.  But there's room to
> believe there's something wrong with the
> current price picture.

I recall that conversation. They've mortgaged their public utilities
infrastructure over the next thirty years to get it. In 20 years,
that'll look like a terrible investment, as everyone else will be
beyond that, and doesn't still have ten years of a mortgage to pay
off.

> And remember that
> ISPs are often monopolies - at least the
> wire and fiber parts.

For existing infrastructure. They still sell leased lines. And you can
still get your own copper and fiber. But then we're talking money
again. So you buy from someone (say, an office building owner. Or a
data center.) who can split the cost across dozens of customers. Heck,
there's someone in Grandville who probably has the capacity to do that
for Grandville's downtown area.

-- 
:wq

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