Your vat of boiling oil is only large enough for one person - who goes in first?

...but back in 2005, Markey used terms like "economic red-lining", and "diverse populations".

http://www.boston.com/business/technology/articles/2005/02/09/rollout_by_verizon_triggers_concerns/

"I would be very interested to see which communities are going to be on Verizon's next list of deployment to see whether places like Malden that have diverse populations and more moderate incomes are going to be provided with these competitive services," Markey added.

Guess what? He was right. Malden went live around the fall of 2008. Three years and dozens upon dozens of smaller towns and cities got there first.

I believe Verizon's rollout has been mostly based on economic census/market data. I also believe that they are holding Boston hostage until the legislature/governor gives them what they really want: the whole town-by-town cable franchise model struck. Or better yet, get an exemption so that Comcast and RCN are still hobbled by the franchise model and Verizon has yet another massive competitive advantage.

My rub is this: Verizon is a common carrier. The original idea was that in exchange for having access to the public way for their wires (and tax dollars in the form of subsidies) they provide service without discrimination. If I live in Athol, I'm as equally entitled to a telephone line as someone living in Boston.

Many moons ago I ordered a T1 line for a former employer. They had to pull fiber all the way from the local switching office. We (and our ISP) were charged a flat install fee and line charge. It cost them tens of thousands of dollars, took weeks with trucks setting up shop here and there between manholes. The engineer in charge of the whole thing grumbled that Verizon, even if they sold full T1's to everyone in our building (~6-10 tenants), would never make the cost of install back.

Too bad. That's the whole point of being a common carrier- the money you charge me for a $100,000 install evens out with the same money you charge the ten guys in already-wired, densely populated areas you only need to bring in a lineman to run a pair from the street for.

Unfortunately, Verizon has taken advantage of the subsidies and public-way access to wire up their infrastructure and compete is a market they were never intended to be allowed into (television) and while entering that new market they did precisely what a common carrier is never supposed to be allowed to do: pick and choose what markets to serve. They did it with DSL, too, and on a regulatory/legislative level, nobody gave a shit.

If our state and federal regulators were on the case, I should be able to phone up Verizon tomorrow and say "gimme Fios", and they'd have to MAKE it happen- install the stuff in the CO, run the fiber to my neighborhood if they had to. And if they refused, I could sic the PUC on them for failing to live up to their common carrier status.

yeesh...