Telepocalypse

Call me contrarian...

This might be bonkers, but I’m going to float it anyway.

Incumbent telcos should be banned from deploying fibre-optic cable access networks.

Yes, your read that right. Lay fiber to the home, get jail time. Before the men in white coats arrive, let me explain. The danger is that they’ll use monopoly copper revenue to build a new access monopoly. You can either try to tackle this through regulation, or through structural separation. I personally favour that capital allocation for fibre networks be allocated totally independently of copper. Apart from anything, it will stimulate alternative ownership and funding approaches — which would be too risky with an incumbent Sword of Damocles dangling by a fibre.

But isn’t it unfair, you retort? Aren’t you robbing the incumbent shareholders of the opportunities of technological progress?

My first reaction to this is to start yelling expletives and shaking my fists, but once I calm down I would suggest you look at the actual rate at which such technology has been deployed (not promised), and how long such technology has been available. You aren’t going to be robbing the shareholders of much, believe me.

So the incumbents become permanent custodians of the copper network. Just deregulate the whole thing. Rip all the pages out of the rulebook. Give their shareholders a little cheer for a year or two. And then let the cash gusher encourage new access entrants, safe in the knowledge they have nothing to fear apart from real competition.

Ooh, that’s the doorbell. I’d better go now.