Re:California's housing bill SB 50 has died in the state Senate
by scarface74 on Friday January 31, 2020 @09:10AM
(#22201755)
So instead of having a private monopoly on infrastructure where politicians tell the private monopoly what to do. Now we have a public monopoly where we have the politicians controlling it directly.
There is historical precedent for internet providers competing for internet over a common infrastructure. That use to be required for DSL. None of the companies were profitable. Locally there was MindSpring and Telestream among others that both tried.
Water, sewer, and storm drain, yes, that's a plausible natural monopoly. Electrical power, telephone, and internet, no. At most the conduits that the cables have to go through could be a natural monopoly, but not the services themselves.
> if you had multiple companies competing, they would only serve the most profitable customers who live in the most dense areas. You see that now with internet providers - especially fiber
This could be an argument for individual municipalities building their own infrastructure, owning it, and leasing it to service providers like ISPs.
It is not an argument for what we actually have in the US, which is higher-level governments giving monopolies to private companies, and those private companies successfully suing individual municipalities that try to build their own infrastructure, own it, and lease it to service providers.