Verizon and line sharing

[Mark J. Dulcey]

John Chambers wrote:

 > Stephen Ronan wrote:
 > |
 > | Unfortunately, the Verizon Fios Terms of Service include this:
 > |
 > | "You may not use the Broadband Service to host any type of server
 > | personal or commercial in nature."
 > | (http://www.verizon.net/policies/popups/tos_popup.asp)
 >
 > Hmmm ... Verizon owns the phone wire coming into our house,
 > but   we   got   around   this  problem  by  going  through
 > speakeasy.net for our IP service, and of  course  speakeasy
 > promises  to  not  block ports.  I wonder whether you could
 > also go through speakeasy to use Verizon's high-speed fibre
 > lines?


I don't think that it's likely that Verizon will make those lines 
available to other carriers, now that the FCC has ruled that they aren't 
required to. The feds bought the argument that they LBOCs wouldn't put 
in those new lines if they were required to share them, rather than the 
(to me) more compelling argument against monopoly or duopoly power.

I'll bet Speakeasy is evaluating 802.16 (WiMax -- standard in progress 
for wide-area wireless broadband) hardware right now; once their current 
line-sharing agreements expire, they may be unable to renew them at any 
price. Then we can say goodbye to the existence of ISPs with reasonable 
terms of service, and hello to the one-way Internet.

Yes, I'm being apocalyptic. Yes, I really do think it could be as bad as 
all that. The essential issue is control of the Internet, and whether we 
allow it to pass entirely into the hands of a handful of large corporations.