Interesting article, although right when I thought we were going to get to some interesting suggestions, the article ends.
So let me finish it for him, what we need is more dynamic and realistic competition in the last-mile ISP business. I believe point to point high-frequency bandwidth can help solve this problem. Metropolitan fiber with sub-leasing capacity to ISPs that carry the traffic is also an option. But the natural monopoly position of last-mile wiring has always been a major issue. Hence regulation of phone companies.
In dense cities with irregular geography, the wireless line of sight can work. Eg: Webpass, monkeybrains in San Francisco. In flatter cities, this may not work as well. In less dense areas, the installation cost usually means a natural monopoly, but towers, line of sight wireless may help there.
The problem is all the LOS wireless stuff has been more of a bespoke solution rather than a scalable one. Tech has helped reduce the hardware cost, but tuning and aiming antennas - does this work for a city like, say, St Lewis?
To summarize, you're saying that none of these look like legit solutions broadly, but a hodgepodge of different solutions in different locations can create interesting options for competition against the natural monopolies, but these natural monopolies may remain in some areas regardless?
So let me finish it for him, what we need is more dynamic and realistic competition in the last-mile ISP business. I believe point to point high-frequency bandwidth can help solve this problem. Metropolitan fiber with sub-leasing capacity to ISPs that carry the traffic is also an option. But the natural monopoly position of last-mile wiring has always been a major issue. Hence regulation of phone companies.
In dense cities with irregular geography, the wireless line of sight can work. Eg: Webpass, monkeybrains in San Francisco. In flatter cities, this may not work as well. In less dense areas, the installation cost usually means a natural monopoly, but towers, line of sight wireless may help there.
The problem is all the LOS wireless stuff has been more of a bespoke solution rather than a scalable one. Tech has helped reduce the hardware cost, but tuning and aiming antennas - does this work for a city like, say, St Lewis?