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For the past decade, broadband has been classified as an "information service" and thus more lightly regulated than traditional telephone services. This has led

by aditya 16y ago

For the past decade, broadband has been classified as an "information service" and thus more lightly regulated than traditional telephone services. This has led to an explosion of new investment and Web innovation I'm sorry - but, what?! There's been innovation on the web because the telecom industry was deregulated?! All I can see is that the current telcos have no incentive to innovate in any way, and are gouging consumers as much as they can while the US lags behind the rest of the world in broadband speed and availability! What this is, is a thinly veiled attempt at trying to blame the left-leaning administration for an evil communist plot - while all it's trying to do is force telcos to catch up with the rest of the world...

yummyfajitas 16y ago
It's a relative comparison. Compare the gains in internet to the gains in plain old telephone service. Incidentally, much of the rest of the world has less regulation than us. In Korea, for example, you have competition between multiple internet providers (i.e., more than just Verizon and Cable). In the US, such competition is illegal.
- hga 16y ago
  De facto illegal. In theory other companies can run wires or fiber, and most certainly they can and many do it with radio, it's just that the legal monopoly incumbents have too many advantages. Plus backhaul is very expensive in lots of places.
  - tbrownaw 16y ago
    > In theory other companies can run wires or fiber, and most certainly they can and many do it with radio I thought there tended to be monopolies on wires/fiber granted by local governments (supposedly to limit the number of companies tearing up roads and the like to install new infrastructure, but more likely to create a scarce privilege they can sell)? Radio tends to be much lower bandwidth, and can be susceptible to bad weather.
    - hga 16y ago
      In theory I think you can go to Federal court and get these overturned, but I could of course be wrong. We're not likely to find out since the other side (ILECs, cablecos and local and state government) has so much power it's just not worth it. Who has the budget and time to play this game?
csmeder 16y ago
By inovation do they mean innovative prices? "We are the first company in 2010 to charge so much for low speeds and get away with it". I spend 24.99 a month for 1mbps charter cable because it is what I can afford. In response Charter sends me "important notices" that they can save me a bundle by charging me over $70 for tv, phone and internet. It's one thing to spam people who aren't your customers, but to spam your customers with phony "important" notices every month is just tacky.
deleted 16y ago
[deleted]
hga 16y ago
DOCSIS 3.0? Verizon FTTH? Compare to the extreme of the Tele Phone Company and your only being able to hook up slow modems you've leased from them. Yes, I agree with you the current situation in the US is bad in many way but I guarantee you the FCC can make it worse. Ignoring regulatory capture, how about the fact that none of their current top people are engineers?!??!!??!!!
- tbrownaw 16y ago
  > Compare to the extreme of the Tele Phone Company and your only being able to hook up slow modems you've leased from them. I was under the impression that those phone company rules were done away with by government interference that was rather similar to what they're trying to do to internet connectivity now.
  - hga 16y ago
    But these phone company rules existed in the first place because the government granted AT&T a legal monopoly to provide service (well, service to the most profitable places; lots of rural areas had to get service from someone else such as GTE or set up their own ILECs).

by aditya 16y ago

yummyfajitas 16y ago

It's a relative comparison. Compare the gains in internet to the gains in plain old telephone service. Incidentally, much of the rest of the world has less regulation than us. In Korea, for example, you have competition between multiple internet providers (i.e., more than just Verizon and Cable). In the US, such competition is illegal.

hga 16y ago
De facto illegal. In theory other companies can run wires or fiber, and most certainly they can and many do it with radio, it's just that the legal monopoly incumbents have too many advantages. Plus backhaul is very expensive in lots of places.
- tbrownaw 16y ago
  > In theory other companies can run wires or fiber, and most certainly they can and many do it with radio I thought there tended to be monopolies on wires/fiber granted by local governments (supposedly to limit the number of companies tearing up roads and the like to install new infrastructure, but more likely to create a scarce privilege they can sell)? Radio tends to be much lower bandwidth, and can be susceptible to bad weather.
  - hga 16y ago
    In theory I think you can go to Federal court and get these overturned, but I could of course be wrong. We're not likely to find out since the other side (ILECs, cablecos and local and state government) has so much power it's just not worth it. Who has the budget and time to play this game?

csmeder 16y ago

By inovation do they mean innovative prices? "We are the first company in 2010 to charge so much for low speeds and get away with it". I spend 24.99 a month for 1mbps charter cable because it is what I can afford. In response Charter sends me "important notices" that they can save me a bundle by charging me over $70 for tv, phone and internet. It's one thing to spam people who aren't your customers, but to spam your customers with phony "important" notices every month is just tacky.

deleted 16y ago

[deleted]

hga 16y ago

DOCSIS 3.0? Verizon FTTH? Compare to the extreme of the Tele Phone Company and your only being able to hook up slow modems you've leased from them. Yes, I agree with you the current situation in the US is bad in many way but I guarantee you the FCC can make it worse. Ignoring regulatory capture, how about the fact that none of their current top people are engineers?!??!!??!!!

tbrownaw 16y ago
> Compare to the extreme of the Tele Phone Company and your only being able to hook up slow modems you've leased from them. I was under the impression that those phone company rules were done away with by government interference that was rather similar to what they're trying to do to internet connectivity now.
- hga 16y ago
  But these phone company rules existed in the first place because the government granted AT&T a legal monopoly to provide service (well, service to the most profitable places; lots of rural areas had to get service from someone else such as GTE or set up their own ILECs).