[BC] Fiber, watch out

[jyrussell at academicplanet.com]

I'd agree very much with Edwin on this - for many year every piece of  
fibre connecting the D/FW Metromess with points east was owned  
outright by Comcast.

the glass followed the I-30 corridor across Lake Ray Hubbard, and, no  
matter what cable company or DSL or other ISP you were working with,  
they eventually had to get on the glass owned by Comcast to get onto  
the D/FW server net.

   Companies with enough money (read: AT&T) didn't have many issues  
with this arrangement, I'm sure the laswsuits would be huge if they  
had.  But the smaller entities could find themselves with a few  
thousand really irate customers (point-to-point wireless internet,  
dial ups, etc.)  Comcast would play along with these small fry and  
provide decent connectivity until some large customer (again - AT&T,  
or their own Comcasty needs) required more bandwidth... sudenly the  
small customers would find servers or switches stopping dead at some  
Comcast box, and techies promising endlessly to 'get right on it'...

Municipally owned cable companies and ISP's eventually had to buy  
their own hrdware to get across the Ray Hubbard area, circumventing  
the Comcast business model.

   Now, if you came in, and cut or moved something... oops.  wouldn't  
have wanted to be you... ;-)

   It might be a little better now, but, how much?
Jason R.

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