Craig Birkmaier wrote: >> Notice, Craig, that Tom Wheeler is hardly opposed to this approach: > And why would another government agency be opposed? The natural monopoly > model for utility regulation has served governments at all levels quite > well. This is what I'm talking about. If you and other nay-sayers were correct that Tom Wheeler is a stooge for the cable companies, that the FCC is in bed with the "oligopolies," then he would oppose these municipal systems. So, they aren't correct. It's that simple. Sometimes people have to take matters into their own hands. According to the article, "'It just didn't look like the private sector was going to bring true, high-speed connectivity to this market,' EPB spokeswoman Danna Bailey said." So they had to take matters into their own hands. I know that many of these public broadband nets have failed. That part is hardly surprising. In this case, with the fees they are charging, and with that initial grant of course, they might just stay afloat, even without having had the huge advantage of the incumbent oligopolies, as you put it. Bert ---------------------------------------------------------------------- You can UNSUBSCRIBE from the OpenDTV list in two ways: - Using the UNSUBSCRIBE command in your user configuration settings at FreeLists.org - By sending a message to: opendtv-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the word unsubscribe in the subject line.