Investing in the Cherry Orchard
For reasons that seem everything to do with controlling the rate of deployment, to the benefit of existing large players, the telcos (most vociferously and, appropriately enough, Talk Talk) are claiming that any whiff of state aid to the roll out of broadband networks will "chill" private investment. Given that the investment spectrum is pretty wide, covering the space between the cherry orchard and the revenue desert, why is it OK for the private sector to invest in the orchard, but not OK for public money to be used for oases in the desert?
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1. At 29 Nov 2009 11:28, Guy Jarvis wrote:
Good question!
A cynical person might say that the problem with public subsidy/intervention, from the perspective of commercial private sector interests, is unwelcome as it comes with strings attached.
Strings like Open Access, which breaks the vertically-integrated 20th Century telecomms and media ownership model.
There is a risk also from public intervention to community/grassroots independent NGA initiatives in the desert regions that you refer to
- that risk is that any public funding might gravitate towards a small number of big incumbent industry players and have the unintended consequence of supressing local "blue pound" innovation and more importantly in the long-term, of degrading the value proposition of NGA for future generations.
2. At 17 Dec 2009 09:04, Brian Hely wrote:
I look forward in the new year coming for Talk Talk to plant their seeds in the 5000plus Exchange areas that they currently dont harvest the fruits of their investment. But I wont be salivating in anticipation of tasting their fruits, why because they dont want to go to everywhere to sell their produce but cant digest the fact that others may set up their own orchards and not just restricted to cherries.