] But as McAdams nicely puts it (so nicely that we might
] call this the McAdams theorem), you don't monopolize
] yourself.

An essay by Lawrence Lessig on the virtues of muni owned telco.

What Larry misses though is that while this might be a better solution than what the FCC is doing to enable the ILEC's to control telco, it is not the *best* solution.

It is a good point that muni owned telco can be an enabler to the community. However, muni operated _anything_ is usually the lowest of the low. Look at all the other examples: healtcare and human services, education, even garbage collection. All of these muni operated services are pathetic when compared with market operated alternatives. Yes, it doesn't make sense to deploy 4 fiber network taps to every home, just as it doesn't make sense to deploy 4 electricity taps. But where those packets of light and sine waves of electricity come from is another matter alltogether.

If you really want the solution, it's that the US government should mandate that all PLANT be owned by the people. The services which run above layer 1 can be anybody. This is no different than how we manage other key infrastructure (roads, pipelines, spacecraft, etc). It would totally eliminate the grid lock we face with the RBOCs, re-energize competition and consumer choice, and you could have a FTTH network cross country in a few short years rather than waiting decades in playing cat and mouse. Alas, this will never happen.

Fiber to the People