<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html charset=utf-8"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;" class="">Especially as the alternative in such countries is typically a government owned monopoly with all the inefficiencies and market distortion of a monopoly and all the sloth and bureaucracy of an overly large public sector organization ..<div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">I am not sure if you have ever had to pay over $200 a month to a state owned telco for a 33.6k dialup.</div><div class=""><br class=""><div><blockquote type="cite" class=""><div class="">On 27-Mar-2016, at 7:37 PM, Nick Ashton-Hart <<a href="mailto:nashton@consensus.pro" class="">nashton@consensus.pro</a>> wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><div class=""><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; float: none; display: inline !important;" class="">As to your views on competitive markets and their suitability, I don’t wish to get into a debate - you are free to think what you like - but there is a very great deal of evidence that competitive telecom markets produce lower Internet access prices at higher performance. I am sitting in an LDC which has exactly this experience and it is far from unique. If your objection to markets means you object to this fundamental idea, again, your free to do what you like, but unless you can point to an equally effective non-market-based solution that works at scale and across all levels of economic development I would’t expect your counterargument to get very far.</span></div></blockquote></div><br class=""></div></body></html>