Property rights and Net Neutrality
Don Marti

  
    
    Wed 18 Nov 2009 02:45:15 PM PST
  
  Property rights and Net Neutrality

  This photo shows a virtual, alternative Alameda.



It's a mockup to show proposed new AT&T network gear
to be installed on a public sidewalk in Alameda,
California.  As an Alameda resident, I got it in my
postal mail as part of the city approval process.
(The brown box is already there.  The light green
box isn't there yet, and AT&T is asking the city for
permission to put it there.)

Both boxes, existing and planned, are on the
public sidewalk.  And the lines that connect to
them run under the same sidewalk.  And that's the
missing part of the whole "Net Neutrality" debate.
It's not just about the big bad government trying
to regulate the fiber owner's private property,
it's about whether or not the fiber owner can obtain
rights of way under one usage model, then convert
them to another.

Net-based businesses depend on fiber, but
the fiber installers depend on the goodwill
of property owners and local governments.
If the companies that run the fiber are the "pipeholders",
don't forget about the "dirtholders."


  
    
  

  
    
    
  



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