Comments on: FCC Gives Apartment Dwellers Freedom To Choose Their Phone Company

By: macdad614

macdad614 — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 03:50:37 +0000

What phone company? I really would like to see a graph of the number of customers each of the major phone companies has had over the past 10 years. I would bet that with the tremendous availability of cell phones, the decline in customers using wired service has been phenomenal.

By: Richard

Richard — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 19:02:13 +0000

I think you mean http://www.web-pass.com/, not http://www.webpass.com/.

By: Roger Weeks

Roger Weeks — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 18:37:38 +0000

Your link to webpass appears to go somewhere else entirely that is not an ethernet-based ISP...

By: JR Holmes

JR Holmes — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 18:00:49 +0000

You will want to correct the link to the Ethernet-based Internet provider. The provided link goes to a vending machine operator. You want http://www.web-pass.com.

By: Jesse Kopelman

Jesse Kopelman — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 17:57:44 +0000

I don't think anyone is stopping WebPass. More likely they don't have the resources to go after MDU customers, where the wiring can be expensive. Just look at cable. FCC put an end to exclusives there last year, but I have yet to see an apartment complex being served by multiple providers. Companies are in no hurry to overbuild. If you aren't already passed by the physical plant of multiple companies, these FCC rulings will do you no good.

By: Thomas Morf

Thomas Morf — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 17:28:44 +0000

In France, the the incumbent phone company, France Telecom, is required to leave some space for switches and pipes of competitors, whenever they hook up a new building or neighborhood. France has some of the lowest long-distance and broadband subscription rates in the world.