By Cory Doctorow (GPG 0xBF3D9110957E5F4C) @doctorow.pluralistic.net · 07/04/2026Meanwhile, the Swiss can get connections that are *far* faster, and cheaper. How did they do it? For starters, the Swiss recognized what any Simcity player knows: fiber is a "natural monopoly." 8/ 1233
By Cory Doctorow (GPG 0xBF3D9110957E5F4C) @doctorow.pluralistic.net · 07/04/2026It doesn't make any sense to build multiple, competing fiber networks - any more than it would make sense to build multiple, competing sewer systems or electric grids. In the US, private fiber providers get city permits to dig up the roads and lay their network. 9/ 1221
By Cory Doctorow (GPG 0xBF3D9110957E5F4C) @doctorow.pluralistic.net · 07/04/2026 If you have two competing networks, they dig up the road twice. You'd think that the (more regulated) Germans would lay a single network, but they, too, have multiple, competing networks. 10/ 1140
