5 ms·

I wonder what it would take to really create ISP competition in the US? I thought I remembered seeing somewhere that the big ISP's use the legal system to esse

I wonder what it would take to really create ISP competition in the US? I thought I remembered seeing somewhere that the big ISP's use the legal system to essentially drive up entrance costs for smaller players. Would the EFF be able to help with something like that? The only real long term solution to stuff like this is more competition, because without it you never have the option to "vote with your wallet."

fastball 9y ago
All we really need is municipal fiber. Then ISP's would just be connecting towns/areas, and the barrier to entry would be a lot lower if necessary.
moosey 9y ago
We've had it before, and the way forward is very simple: Internet Service resale at cost. The major internet providers would be forced to resell to other internet providers access at the costs to the company, including labor, maintenance, etc. Resellers then compete with the company to produce the lowest overhead.
- rhino369 9y ago
  That would get you very cheap ISP with terrible speeds and a lot of downtime. There is no incentive for investment if they have to resell at (or near) cost. And we've seen this in action. DSL service was covered by Title II originally, which meant it had to be unbundled and resold. But cable internet had no requirement. Investment flooded to cable rather than telecom. Why would Verizon invest billions in a network that benefits third parties? Well they didn't. It was only after Title II repeal that Verizon went forward with Fios. Because it didn't have to resell. It's possible to do this sort of thing, but you have to build in a fat profit margin. But even then, the companies wouldn't have any incentive to provide good service.
  - moosey 9y ago
    And that situation would push us towards internet as public utility, or at least internet infrastructure as public utility. Also, investment into additional infrastructure could be baked into the resale cost. In my opinion, internet as public utility is not a bad thing, although I'm sure there will be many detractors to the idea.

fastball 9y ago

All we really need is municipal fiber. Then ISP's would just be connecting towns/areas, and the barrier to entry would be a lot lower if necessary.

moosey 9y ago

We've had it before, and the way forward is very simple: Internet Service resale at cost. The major internet providers would be forced to resell to other internet providers access at the costs to the company, including labor, maintenance, etc. Resellers then compete with the company to produce the lowest overhead.

rhino369 9y ago
That would get you very cheap ISP with terrible speeds and a lot of downtime. There is no incentive for investment if they have to resell at (or near) cost. And we've seen this in action. DSL service was covered by Title II originally, which meant it had to be unbundled and resold. But cable internet had no requirement. Investment flooded to cable rather than telecom. Why would Verizon invest billions in a network that benefits third parties? Well they didn't. It was only after Title II repeal that Verizon went forward with Fios. Because it didn't have to resell. It's possible to do this sort of thing, but you have to build in a fat profit margin. But even then, the companies wouldn't have any incentive to provide good service.
- moosey 9y ago
  And that situation would push us towards internet as public utility, or at least internet infrastructure as public utility. Also, investment into additional infrastructure could be baked into the resale cost. In my opinion, internet as public utility is not a bad thing, although I'm sure there will be many detractors to the idea.