Re: [vox] HR 1542 passed the House

[Joel Baumert <MAPSkender@geeksource.net>]

On Wed, Mar 06, 2002 at 07:44:24PM -0500, Erik Mullinix wrote:
> By De-regulating Broadband the shackles that kept the phone companies from
> monopolizing the market are no longer present.  Case in point.  A) Small
> broadband isp's will no longer have a cap on payments for services.  (the
> telco's can charge what they want)  B) The telco's can decide who to sell
> rack space or switch space to if they want to or not.  Think.. De-regulation
> in the energy market.  Look at the impact that had.

Hmm... The impact of deregulating the energy market... Lower energy prices.
Take a look at states that really deregulated the market.  The California
bill was a re-regulation of the energy market with a bunch of silly market
engineering that was a complete failure.

The metric for energy deregulation should not necessarily be lower prices
because the raw materials are a commodity which changes is price depending
on supply and demand.  When it costs more to make something it usually 
follows that it will be more expensive to buy.  That was not the case 
during the natural gas "shortage" where the state of California went in
the hole billions of dollars while the citizens had no reason to conserve.

If the citizens were immediately getting the bill for the services they
were using, they would have probably turned of the Christmas lights, heaters,
etc. and we wouldn't be in the hole we are in now.

> Up to HR 1542 companies like PacBell had to sell space on there switches to
> anyone who wishes to buy it. upto a certain amount and the cost could only
> be to a certain amount.  Also they could not actualy "BE" a broadband
> service provider.  The Broadband service was provided by SBC (sister-esq
> company) and internet service. (email, ip, http) was served by a contract
> with PacBell.  They would get around regulation by not turning up banks at
> remote telco's even tho they were installed.  As regulation only limited
> them to banks that were up and running for sale to other entities the lack
> of regulation means they can now push via cost to get smaller companies out
> of the market.

"Such high speed data service shall be offered on rates, terms, and conditions
that are just and reasonable in accordance with section 201(b)."

I'm not sure what "reasonable" means as defined by 201(b).  I'll take a
look for that section tonight.

> 
> The Upside to this.
> We as a public may get to reap the benefit if ISP wars start up again.

Deregulation only works if it increases competition and encourages the
providers of services to look for ways of distinguishing themselves from
their rivals.

> 
> Hesperant
> 
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Joel Baumert" <kender@geeksource.net>
> To: <vox@lists.lugod.org>
> Sent: Wednesday, March 06, 2002 9:59 AM
> Subject: Re: [vox] HR 1542 passed the House
> 
> 
> > Why is this bill bad? I glanced through the rest of the bill and
> > I didn't see anything that jumped out at me.  Maybe there is
> > something subtle change that makes it impossible for the ISPs
> > to compete???
> >
> > Joel
> >
> >
> > It states:
[...]
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