Yeah, outlandish and bizarre:
http://www.newnetworks.com/broadbandscandals.htm
We already *PAID* for that system. Well, ownership of strands aside, it
would have been similar.
And the thing is, years later, we have people coming along and thinking
that this is in any way visionary or innovative. (That is NOT meant as
an attack on you, the authors at New America, or the idea, but rather an
attack on the most fantastic bit of spin and propaganda manipulation that
has allowed the ILEC's to get away with this, almost completely unnoticed,
so that nobody even remembers what was promised. Can you feel the
despair?)
So, the question is, how do we reclaim these funds from the ILEC's?
Or how do we force the ILEC's to produce the system promised, and release
it from their monopolies?
In an environment where cities are getting ticked off and deploying fiber
(Monticello, MN) and then getting sued for doing so (TDS Telecom) even
after the carrier initially refused to do such a deployment, I am really
very strongly in favor of this sort of self-determination.
... JG