Again, I like to go to the empirical data rather than the political argument. After Free started taking customers, France Telecom responded by dramatically increasing broadband investment, including ADSL2+ to 95% of the country. That’s far ahead of anywhere else in the world. A long dormant VDSL plan has been revived after some neighborhoods in Paris started being served by a new fiber builder.

Everything I know suggests competition (even the semi-artificial unbundling) is far more likely to get a telco investing than “incentives”, including de-regulation. The most dramatic case in here in the U.S. After UNE-P was thrown out, SBC in 2003 essentially stopped broadband deployment, which has been stuck at 76-77% for three years.

The investor in you, rather than the politician, should recognize that as a case of a company cutting capex to prop up short term results, rarely a strategy that pays off. SBC capex is currently only 70% of depreciation.

That we’re doing so after some of the most extreme deregulation in the world is the political lesson I choose to draw. I also note SBC’s poor financial results ongoing.

db

”
UNE, like Net Neutrality, is a confiscatory policy that expropriates an asset from it’s owner.
”

I should review my economy fundamentals about the limit of the free market when dealing with non-replicable infrastructure assets !

Anyway, very interesting blog!

:-)