(2007-01-30) Frankston Cfr

Bob Frankston writes Our connectivity infrastructure is made up of Copper, Fiber and Radios (CFR) and is a fixed asset that requires a small amount of maintenance... Today the Internet and the networks in our homes make it clear that given the CFR we can do our own networking. Yet we fund the CFR by letting the incumbent service providers (TelCo, CableCo) maintain their privileged ownership. Funding the Infrastructure by selling services makes no more sense that having men with pikes charging for use of their personal highways... This difference came to the fore when I decided to try FiOS TV. In order to get the new capabilities I have to use Verizon's router to connect my home network to the rest of the Internet... It's as if Verizon is trying to take back control of my home network... They can spend freely (on redundant Co Ax) while claiming that there's real competition but it's an illusion if they are all the same. This rationale for implementing an expensive private path is mirrored in their rationale for having their own private distribution systems outside our homes... The carriers come from a world in which they have total control over every element of their network and believe they must have total control in order to manage their scarce resource. It is bad engineering but justifies high costs and exclusive control over the CFR. Yet the Internet is a dramatic demonstration of the power of Loosely Coupled systems... At this point I can hear the traditionalists warning us that we'll have to pay because it can't really be that inexpensive. Yet the costs keep going down as the capacity increases... In fact many communities are already deploying their own CFR (Municipal Wifi)... A subscription model fits our own naive notion of fairness but makes no sense because the CFR is a fixed asset. That's why we can afford to use it for video - the video bits are essentially given away free compared with the cost of the other bits. The subscription model doubles the cost when we deploy redundant Broad Band systems and get no additional capacity. It also deprives us of wireless coverage - we're disconnected almost everywhere... We should learn from the example of the Interstate Defense HighWay System. Some estimates put the value to society in the trillions of dollars. By trying to make the CFR a profit center we have created Artificial Scarcity and denied the marketplace the benefit of a vital resource.... We have ceded control of our CFR to a small number of providers and are reduced to begging for fair treatment and a little more "Internet". It's shameful and tragic.