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"But critics of net neutrality rules argue that free-market competition would prevent such abuses" Is consumer internet really a free market? To my knowledge,
by rflrob 16y ago
"But critics of net neutrality rules argue that free-market competition would prevent such abuses"
Is consumer internet really a free market? To my knowledge, most of the Bay Area only has a choice between Comcast and AT&T. If you only have 2 or 3 companies competing, it's relatively easy for them all to decide independently that traffic shaping is in their own best interest, which leaves the consumer with no real choice.
- delinka 16y agoI'd really like someone to take politicians to task with this. "Mr. Congresscritter, where is the free market alternative to ISP One in Somecity, seeing as ISP One bought up all its competitors?"
- waterlesscloud 16y agoIs there a free-market for the right-of-way the isp lines travel through? Is there a free-market for spectrum? In both cases, no. There are very heavily regulated markets. So if they benefit from very heavy regulation, and they do, then they should be subject to some regulation as well.
- hammock 16y agoFree market does not necessarily mean perfect competition, or 10+ competitors to choose from. I don't know where you got that idea.
- Lost_BiomedE 16y agoWhile this is true, it was essentially mandated that there be two competitors. The choice was to have many resellers of DSL competing against cable, or an entrenched duopoly. Chairman Michael Powell chose the duopoly, even using that word to describe it.
- jauer 16y agoI'm nearly 2K miles from the Bay Area but I've heard of more than 3 ISPs that serve the area. What about Unwired, Cruzio, and Sonic?
- sigil 16y ago> If you only have 2 or 3 companies competing ... If there were truly only 2 companies that provided internet in the Bay Area (this would be extremely surprising to me), collusion might be possible. With 3, you now have a nice unstable equilibrium in game theory terms. But what do you want to bet there are even more, and you've only heard about the name brand ones? We haven't considered wireless broadband providers. How many of those are there? Okay, so maybe the Bay Area's okay, but what about the rest of America? Turns out that, according to the FCC's own data, 98% of zipcodes have 2 or more landline providers, and 88% of zipcodes have 4 or more. Again, this is not counting 3g or 4g. http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DOC-292191A1.pdf http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DOC-292191...