larry borsato

Open and unfettered access to the internet allowed incredible new applications like music sharing, blogging and video to be created. Those applications make the internet more valuable, and as a result the telecom companies that provide the pipes want a bigger share of the pie, a pie that was created in spite of them.

If they had taken the "charge by the megabyte" approachat the dawn of the internet, there just wouldn’t be an internet today. We wouldn’t have possibly the greatest advance in communications ever seen in our lifetime. And many telecom companies would simply no longer exist.

But just because the internet is now immensely popular doesn’t give the telecoms a license to make excessive profits, and to control what people can and can’t do on the internet. Perhaps it is time that internet access becomes a public utility, to ensure fair access for all.

Where I live, there actually was a joint venture between the local electric utilities to create a fiber and wireless access provider – Atria Networks.They were in the process of extending access across the city, while local politicians trumpeted the intelligent city they were building. And it was an excellent story.

Until last week that is, when they announced the sale of Atria to Birch Hill Equity Partners. Now Birch Hill Equity Partners will continue the provision of free services to the libraries and some other groups, but they aren’t committed to building a better network in our town, so I’m concerned about the future of this network as well.

Actually it would seem to me that these regional networks are nothing but a thorn in the side of larger telecoms, and can imagine that Birch Hill will eventually sell out to Bell. We’ll have to see just what happens.