Backbone data prices have continued to sink, year after year. "Last mile" connectivity prices continue to rise and far outpace the underlying data transmission costs (and particularly, the backbone portion of those costs).
If you have spare backbone capacity, but are also in the very lucrative business of providing end-point / last mile connectivity, why would you lease your excess capacity and open yourself up to competition in the lucrative last mile segment?
P.S. Take "last mile" figuratively, in the above. I don't know where the line exactly between "local"/lucrative and "long haul"/ever-cheaper.
>"If you have spare backbone capacity, but are also in the very lucrative business of providing end-point / last mile connectivity, why would you lease your excess capacity and open yourself up to competition in the lucrative last mile segment?"
The actual fiber is a sunk cost. It's possibly you might get a better return on that asset by leasing unused capacity even if it introduces some element of competition.
Backbone data prices have continued to sink, year after year. "Last mile" connectivity prices continue to rise and far outpace the underlying data transmission costs (and particularly, the backbone portion of those costs).
If you have spare backbone capacity, but are also in the very lucrative business of providing end-point / last mile connectivity, why would you lease your excess capacity and open yourself up to competition in the lucrative last mile segment?
P.S. Take "last mile" figuratively, in the above. I don't know where the line exactly between "local"/lucrative and "long haul"/ever-cheaper.