The Competition Question

USA Today published an article today, "States weigh limits on public Internet". The "competition" question is an important one. It was the first one that occurred to me when I first started considering Dr. Cohill's recommendations, and usually the first one to come up when the recommendations are being discussed.

The distinction Dr. Cohill makes is between infrastructure and service. I used the analogy of FedEx, UPS, and other delivery services building their own roads and prohibiting competitors from using them to provide competing delivery services. So then, just as the states do not provide mail service by virtue of owning and maintaining the roads, neither would they provide Internet services by virtue of owning and maintaining the network infrastructure.

I don't imagine this simple analogy even begins to address the vast complexities raised by the possibilities raised by the Cohill recommendations. And this simply reinforces our need to begin asking ourselves some of these tough questions.