A Thoroughly Modern Way to Fleece the Customer, Dynamic Pricing

Date: 10 Oct 2017 | posted in: From the Desk of David Morris, The Public Good | 0 Facebooktwitterredditmail

This article was originally published in our The Public Good: Reports from the Front Lines (September 27, 2017), available here. In the beginning there were no fixed prices.  Every transaction involved a negotiation between buyer and seller. Then, in 1861, as Guardian reporter Tim Adams informs us, Philadelphia retailer John Wanamaker introduced price tags along with the slogan, “If everyone … Read More

The Birth of Community Broadband – Video

Date: 15 Aug 2014 | posted in: MuniNetworks | 0 Facebooktwitterredditmail

ILSR is excited to announce a new short video examining an impressive municipal broadband network, Glasgow Kentucky. Glasgow was the first municipal broadband network and indeed, seems to have been the first citywide broadband system in the United States. We partnered with the Media Working Group to produce this short documentary and we have the material … Read More

Monticello Fiber Price War Offers Key Lessons for Broadband Competition

Date: 19 Sep 2013 | posted in: MuniNetworks | 0 Facebooktwitterredditmail

Monticello Minnesota may be located 40 miles outside Minneapolis, but it is the center of the planet when it comes to FTTH competition. We have tried and cannot identify another community localed on planet earth with two separate FTTH networks going head to head across the entire community. We have long written about Monticello, most recently … Read More

Monticello Moves Closer to Settlement with Bondholders

Date: 20 Jun 2013 | posted in: MuniNetworks | 0 Facebooktwitterredditmail

It has been about a year since we checked in on FiberNet Monticello, a city-owned FTTH network about 40 miles northwest of Minneapolis. At that time, the network was generating insufficient revenue to meet debt payments, the private company operating the network (HBC) was stepping down, and Gigabit Squared was kicking the tires. Since then, Gigabit … Read More

Billy Ray, Community Broadband Pioneer, Joins us For Community Broadband Bits #33

Date: 12 Feb 2013 | posted in: MuniNetworks, Podcast | 0 Facebooktwitterredditmail

Glasgow was a true pioneer in community owned broadband networks, starting with its own cable plant in the 1980s. Billy Ray, CEO of Glasgow Electric Plant Board, has been an inspiration for municipal broadband networks — one can’t dig into the early history of LUS Fiber in Louisiana without running into something from Billy Ray, for … Read More

Justice Department Abets Amazon’s E-Book Monopoly

Date: 20 Jun 2012 | posted in: Retail | 1 Facebooktwitterredditmail

For years, Amazon has used its size and market power to bully publishers and keep other retailers from competing in the e-book market.  And, for years, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has done nothing to constrain Amazon’s abuses or bring about a more competitive marketplace. So it was quite a shock last month when the … Read More

Death of the Category Killers

Date: 23 Jun 2009 | posted in: Retail | 2 Facebooktwitterredditmail

Borders Books is on "death watch," according to one industry observer. Virgin shut down its last U.S. record store this month. Office Depot and Staples are struggling.  Circuit City is gone.  Best Buy has launched a desperate ad campaign.

While the decline of independent businesses has leveled off, the rest of the retail sector is undergoing dramatic consolidation as a small number of massive companies become ever more dominant. This is an ominous trend for manufacturers and consumers, and it exposes serious flaws in U.S. antitrust policy.  … Read More

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