right on! more like Same Old Anus for wont of a wanky TLA...

if you're going to design a service platform, design a freaking service platform - if you're going to build a service-based business, well then build a f*cking service-based business. if your legacy sh*t is sh*tty and holding you back from where you want to be well then rip it out. no need to apologise. no need to look to some enterprise-grade apologist for the magic bullet, there isn't one...

Last thing I want is a government-run ISP. I want an effective independent regulator with sufficient checks and balances to hold private (corp) and public (gov) interests accountable while promoting consumer friendly competition.

The fundamental problem with competition in the telecoms market lies in the local loop/last mile - the physical infrastructure. It's uneconomical and certainly impractical to expect every player to dig their own trenches, build ducts and pull cable. So some form of infrastructure sharing is required. In some countries this is achieved through structural separation - only good if the mature local loop is of reasonably decent quality. But what about ultimately replacing the aging copper with something shiny and fast like optic fibre? Who's going to pony up the money in the interests of free and fair competition?

BTW, the Sherman Act isn't a good example of fair play enforced by top-down regulations. Antitrust remedies are reactive in nature, only once anti-competitive behaviour has been proven is the corporation sanctioned. By this time it's too late, Joe Consumer has already been screwed.

you need structural separation if you want to open your own pizza shop. that being said, structural separation is kinda like having all the pizza shops (telcos) share the same pizza ovens (local loop)! ;-) as long as the regulations allow me to bring my own cheese (new services) then that should be cool, no?

currently it's like the rules allow only one shop to build and operate the pizza ovens.

Comrade Commode-Soixante-Quatre-Amour

Bottom-up only works properly if the top-down regulations permit fair play. Otherwise we end up with robber [railroad|telco] barons all over again and *that would never do* (to quote the Fat Director whose poor railway was nationalised as a knee jerk reaction to crappy capitalism at work!).

There was a good reason why the pendulum swung to the left in the early-mid 20th century. We've seen it swing back since, and I'm sure it's in the process of swinging back again this time. Here's hoping the telecoms industry in North America gets a belated kick up the backside as a result.