I just read an article in DataNews about a project of the “Union Wallonne des Villes et Communes” which would like to bill Belgacom, our national tel co operator, for every meter of
sidewalks opened to place new cables!
Working for a Flemish company and living on the French part of our country, I can often feel the differences between north and south in term of “digital world” [1]. The Flemish government is much more involved in new technologies and development of the Internet and all around it. A few years ago, Belgium was one of the country with the more penetration level of broadband connectivity. Now, lot of countries reduced the gap.
Belgacom must expands its network to be able to offer more and more services and technologies to a very-broad range of citizens. IMHO, billing Belgacom with extra costs won’t be the best solution. Network expansion will slow down, extra costs will be billed to the end-user like you and me! If Belgacom got billed, what about all other players which use he ground like gas, electricity or water delivery companies?
Article: http://www.datanews.be/nl/90-61-15220/article.html?cid=rss.
[1] The goal here is not to start a flame war :-).