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Yep, it doesn't need to be treated as a utility, there just needs to be competition. Our Xfinity internet was locked at 150 Mbps for years until the local DSL p
by mperham 4y ago
Yep, it doesn't need to be treated as a utility, there just needs to be competition. Our Xfinity internet was locked at 150 Mbps for years until the local DSL provider (Centurylink) rolled out gigabit fiber. Suddenly Xfinity started offering gigabit also.
Capitalism doesn't work if the market is captured by rent-seekers. Unfortunately this describes most American industries these days.
- baq 4y agoto be precise: monopoly is peak laissez-faire capitalism; regulation is what makes this local maximum easy to get out of instead of dealing with an East India Company situation.
- dantheman 4y agoCapitalism doesn't work when the government grants monopolies to local companies.
- sofixa 4y agoThe monopolies in question are natural monopolies (basically any infrastructure which is physically constrained), so the only way of lessening the damages from them is via government regulations.
- dantheman 4y agoNope, the monopolies in question are granted by the local towns to specific providers so that they will be unprofitable connections to extremely rural recipients. It's a way to subsidize those who don't want to pay for what it would actually cost by secretly taxing everyone in the community by granting monopolies to certain businesses.
- xbmcuser 4y agoNo it is not just about competition it needs to be treated as utility. Do you have 5-10 different companies bring their electricity wire or water pipes to your home of course not. It should be the same most cities should get fiber to the home themselves they can and let isp provide services over them for price let them compete on services. 10 different companies puting fiber all over a city won't be cost effective as they will do 10 times the work and 15-20 times the capital costs.