4 ms·
I agree. While I would prefer a market in which we let competition decide how it goes, as it prevents the government from getting involved, there is no market f
by BinaryIdiot 9y ago
I agree. While I would prefer a market in which we let competition decide how it goes, as it prevents the government from getting involved, there is no market for the majority of Americans. I moved from MD to PA to now CA and every place I go I have had zero alternatives to Comcast. Zero. AT&T told me they would have to run lines to my house at some insane cost (I think it was like $20k or something? It's been many years).
If there is an alternative that's realistic to implement I would be very interested but I haven't heard one.
- orthecreedence 9y agoA year or two ago I would have disagreed and argued that NN is the only way, but recently I've realized that we're just going to keep ping-ponging between regulation and deregulation until the real issue is fixed: ISPs in the US have a stranglehold. So if we actually get a viable marketplace for internet in most places in the US (internet treated like a public utility rented out to private companies), I would concede NN regulation. Basically, short of nobody having any internet at all, almost anything is better than our current situation.
- jandrese 9y agoOpen access rules like the ones that exist on phone lines could do the job. The problem is that we got those rules on phone lines by having the government heavily subsidize them back in the Ma Bell days. The cable and fiber networks were much less subsidized so it's a hard argument to make. The ship has already sailed on treating broadband as a utility like it should be. Muni broadband projects can help, but they're few and far between, plus they suffer from tremendous political pushback from the well connected incumbents.