Harmful 5G Fast Lanes Are Coming; the FCC Needs to Stop Them

Re:Harmful 5G Fast Lanes Are Coming; the FCC Needs to Stop Them by blackeyeblitzar on Saturday April 13, 2024 @12:38PM (#40024247)

I think there is limited room for competition in many of these categories. For example, the infrastructure costs for telecoms make it very difficult for new competition (like a startup) to enter the market. The existing ones benefited from past funding and a lack of competition, but have captured market share. In some cases, there are other practical limitations, for example, splitting up wireless spectrum. Apart from Starlink I’m not sure there can be viable alternatives in this space

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Harmful 5G Fast Lanes Are Coming; the FCC Needs to Stop Them by dave4420 on Saturday April 13, 2024 @12:42PM (#40024268)

You force the infrastructure operator to allow competitors to use their infrastructure on a fair basis. It’s what happens in Europe (including the UK). It works.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Harmful 5G Fast Lanes Are Coming; the FCC Needs to Stop Them by ryandrake on Saturday April 13, 2024 @01:22PM (#40024554)

OR, (and I know this is near heresy) you force the infrastructure operator to allow competitors to use their infrastructure regardless of whether it is fair to that operator.

This isn't a schoolyard playground. We don't have to play fair and treat these megacorporation with kid gloves. When the shoe is on the other foot, corporations don't play fair with us. "Fair" doesn't even come into the picture when they are in the conference room deciding their prices and terms. So why should the government treat them fairly when it comes to a regulatory solution?

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Harmful 5G Fast Lanes Are Coming; the FCC Needs to Stop Them by dave4420 on Saturday April 13, 2024 @04:51PM (#40025993)

“Fair” as in “on the same terms that their own retail unit gets”, without any terms that would be anticompetitive.

And no cross subsidisation.

(I meant “fair to competitors”, but I think you thought I meant “fair to the infrastructure owner”.)

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Harmful 5G Fast Lanes Are Coming; the FCC Needs to Stop Them by blackeyeblitzar on Saturday April 13, 2024 @12:45PM (#40024292)

In Europe they only do this for the last mile as far as I know, and this actually also prevents innovation since again there isn’t competition that can meaningfully introduce alternatives (let’s say cable versus fiber versus whatever). But I agree that approach is still an important tool (certainly better than nothing) and the US should adopt it.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Harmful 5G Fast Lanes Are Coming; the FCC Needs to Stop Them by cycomanic on Saturday April 13, 2024 @01:07PM (#40024431)

> In Europe they only do this for the last mile as far as I know, and this actually also prevents innovation since again there isn’t competition that can meaningfully introduce alternatives (let’s say cable versus fiber versus whatever). But I agree that approach is still an important tool (certainly better than nothing) and the US should adopt it.

Actually many places offer choice between cable and DSL variants. But once there is fiber in the ground it actually doesn't make much sense to go with anything else, so choices disappear (only for connection type, not ISP). With fiber it's much cheaper to provide high speed access (and there is a much clearer update path).

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Harmful 5G Fast Lanes Are Coming; the FCC Needs to Stop Them by tuwtuwtuwtuw on Saturday April 13, 2024 @01:23PM (#40024559)

I live in sweden and can pick from roughly 30 different ISPs where I live. I don't live in some big city, but in a smaller village. There is tons of room for competition if the laws are set up to push for it.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Harmful 5G Fast Lanes Are Coming; the FCC Needs to Stop Them by blackeyeblitzar on Saturday April 13, 2024 @05:03PM (#40026109)

Do you know how they are set up? What elements of their networks they share?

[ Parent | on HN ]