On Mon, 18 Jun 2001, Nathan Newman wrote:
> The attached article is the best summary of why telecom deregulation
> has been a wasteful, irrational, destructive approach to building the
> high-speed Internet future. As the article notes, billions has been
> wasted building competing long distance fiber optic lines, ONLY 5% OF
> WHICH ARE NOW BEING USED, while investments in the critical last mile
> to the homes and office have had severe underinvestments.
Just out of curiousity, it is possible that this could turn out in the end to be a good thing for consumers? That after investors take a well-deserved bath, someone else buys the assets for what they think they will actually add to revenue after all the other necessary costs are taken into account, so that some useful infrastructure ends up getting built that wouldn't have if it was properly costed out? For some reason I got the vague impression that something like this happened with the Chunnel and with the overbuilding of railroads.
Michael __________________________________________________________________________ Michael Pollak................New York City..............mpollak at panix.com