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Comment by gigatexal | Hacker News Reader

What're your thoughts on this idea: internet access is a right and should be treated like a utility. Operators like you and others create supply and then are guaranteed a price or rate as (probably) negotiated by the consortium of suppliers like yourself and others and the local government. And then in return businesses and consumers can rely on (fiber based) internet for a reasonable cost. I personally don't care for this because given a guaranteed stream of income I think incubanants would have little incentive to innovate. I'd rather there be an open and fair market for people like you to come into an underserved market and turn things on its head and lead to innovations like wireless gigabit and other tech. Curious on your thoughts though.

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The biggest problem is: where is the money going to come from?

Even if you guarantee a rate of return, somebody still needs to finance the buildout.

Second issue is, how will infrastructure that is installed, but not used be paid for? Take rate is rarely 100%, so who is going to pay for that part and how?

Governments would pay for this via taxes. At least that's one way. So in the end all of us would be paying for internet, and I guess if there were a way to get internet at 1gig up/1 gig down with no data caps that was very reliable for under 100 bucks a month I would do it. But the build-out costs a lot as you've stated so the capital would have to come from somewhere and perhaps that'd come from infrastructure spending.

We can't convince voters to raise taxes/utility rates enough to fix crumbling dams, lead water pipes, and overflowing sewers.

Unfortunately I happen to agree. Until a disaster happens that the public can be convinced is linked directly to a lack of infrastructure spending I think nothing will happen.

That's very true. Unfortunately, if you threatened to take away their Facebook I think they'd suddenly reconsider.

Neo-con media has framed this very effectively, and the populace now operates within that frame

It's not neo-cons. It's liberals too. God forbid we raise water rates so the water utility can replace aging lead pipes--"what will happen to grandma if water rates go up???!"

Depends on the locality; my city just raised taxes to address infrastructure needs in schools and storm sewers. It's probably not a coincidence that they are also looking at municipal fiber.

Just set up a special district: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3saU5racsGE

If you can guarantee a rate of return, getting money from any bank sounds easy. And if take rate is 60%, then those that take the offer have to pay 100%/60%=166% of what they would have payed with a 100% take rate. Of course that requires estimating the take rate, but that's an everyday buisiness problem.

> If you can guarantee a rate of return, getting money from any bank sounds easy.

Sadly this isn't true. Banks lend you money if you have collateral.

> And if take rate is 60%, then those that take the offer have to pay 100%/60%=166% of what they would have payed with a 100% take rate.

That only works if the customers are willing to pay 166%. The shit really hits the fan if you get the take rate wrong and your costs exceed what your customers have agreed to pay.

This is (roughly) how the New Zealand telecommunications market works.

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