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Re:The number of cities with municipal broadband has jumped ... by kortilla on Thursday April 29, 2021 @03:40AM (#26978411)
> when a natural monopoly exists by way of the last mile.

Given how many people actually have multiple options in the last mile, it’s not a natural monopoly.

Re:The number of cities with municipal broadband has jumped ... by vel0city on Thursday April 29, 2021 @10:44AM (#26981816)
The FCC's listing of multiple broadband providers requires you to read between the lines. For my address they list 5 providers. AT&T is on there twice, there's a cable company, and then Viasat and Hughesnet. Given that Viasat and Hughesnet exist for pretty much the entire contiguous US it makes it super easy to say there's at least two providers serving your area, so the whole 99% of people are served by at least two providers is kind of a worthless statement. Given the high latency involved in their flavor of satellite operations, low data caps (or throttling, technically Viasat says its not a cap) they're not really competitive in just about any market with modern wireline services.

So in reality I have a choice of two wired providers. Imagine how great our food would be if the only restaurants available were either Burger King or McDonalds. What a competitive marketplace!

Re:The number of cities with municipal broadband has jumped ... by kortilla on Friday April 30, 2021 @02:20PM (#26997269)
Two wired providers is not a natural monopoly.
Re:The number of cities with municipal broadband has jumped ... by vel0city on Friday April 30, 2021 @10:37PM (#27002443)
> A natural monopoly is a monopoly in an industry in which high infrastructural costs and other barriers to entry relative to the size of the market give the largest supplier in an industry, often the first supplier in a market, an overwhelming advantage over potential competitors.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_monopoly

It might not be limited to just one for all markets, but two choices isn't very competitive due to the massive infrastructural costs and other barriers of entry (e.g., rights of way). Also, my current residence is an example where there actually is competition. As pointed out above, just because the FCC says there's 2+ broadband providers they're including two satellite providers. So a lot of those 3 provider places are really single wireline providers.

Once again, is a market where all restaurants are either McDonalds or Burger King an example good competition?

Re:The number of cities with municipal broadband has jumped ... by Mauricebranagh on Thursday April 29, 2021 @05:31AM (#26979032)
Only if you have Local Loop Unbundling. For most of the US the completion for the last mine is minuscule or non existent.