Of subways, gov't subsidies and broadband

摘要

There's a lot of talk these days of the "Internet as public utility In fact, if you parse the language of the stimulus package, you definitely pick up that perspective as part of the motivation for investing $7.2 billion in Internet infrastructure.rnA couple years ago, I had a discussion with a friend, one of the few real experts in Internet traffic, who described the Internet as a public utility rather like public transportation systems - such as the New York City subway The implication was that governments do a good job running subways - so why not the Internet?rnI responded by pointing out that the NYC subway wasn't actually a public utility at its inception. Most folks don't know this, but the NYC subway started life (on Oct. 27,1904) as a for-profit initiative by the Interborough Rapid Transit (IRT) company The IRT was soon joined by the privately held Brooklyn Rapid Transit (BRT) and Brooklyn Manhattan Transit (BMT).The government eventually got into the act by developing its own system financed by taxpayer dollars, which competed directly with the IRT, BRT, and BMT.