Should cities be ISPs?

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Strange

I watched a special on this subject. What I find strange is that the ISP's fight this. In most of the cases that the special outlined, the ISP's refused to offer broadband services in the areas that desperately needed it. So, the local governments stepped in to fulfill a need of the people that the ISP's flatly refused to do. Only then did the ISP's cry foul. So, the ISP's claim that it is "too" costly to offer the service, but suddenly when someone else wants to offer the service, they then claim that it is unfair.

What I do not understand if why the service is not there? We have been paying the Universal Service Fee on all telecom bills since the late 1990's. The fee was supposed to provide low cost internet service to non-profits, schools, and rural areas. Why has this not pushed out the broadband services out to the underserved communities? Are the telco and ISP's making money off of the float of when they collect the money and when they actually have to cut a check to the feds? Why do I pay $17.95 for local telephone service, yet my actual bill is jsut over $28?

Posted by: aulax@...   Posted on: 06/23/05 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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