Not to fight over terminology, but in most of the US, cable companies are given an explicit monopoly "franchise" from the local municipality. There are some ar

Not to fight over terminology, but in most of the US, cable companies are given an explicit monopoly "franchise" from the local municipality. There are some areas that might be a natural monopoly anyway due to low density population, but only way you could know is open things up. That's a tough pill to swallow since the franchise "fees" (taxes) are guaranteed so long as the cable company has a guaranteed monopoly. Yes they could pass a generic tax on cable service, but that would be a new tax. I focus on cable companies because that seems to be the most common way to get broadband to many parts of the US.