Which brings us to Comcast buying Time Warner Cable, giving them 19 of the 20 largest metropolitan areas in the US as monopoly holdings.
'There isn’t a market solution, here: there’s only a regulatory solution. The US government regulates the amount that the post office can charge, so that everybody has access to the mail; it also regulates the maximum amount that phone companies can charge for basic landline telephone service. Both of those regulations are beginning to look increasingly anachronistic, in an era where the internet has replaced both mail and telephony. But the obvious regulatory response — to mandate that utilities provide universal access to low-price, high-quality broadband — seems as far away as ever. If Comcast is allowed to buy Time Warner Cable, the current model will become even more entrenched. And the USA will slide ever further backwards in the global connectivity race.'
Comcast is not, of course, interested in the "global connectivity race." It's only interested in this quarter's profits.
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Monopolizing bandwidth
The US is unique in that it has very high broadband prices and an abundance of bandwidth.
How did this merger get approved if they will have a monopoly in many large metropolitan areas? If they’re going to be a near-monopoly provider for internet service, this suggests that perhaps they should be treated as a utility. On the other hand, treating telephone service as a utility hasn’t really served us very well either. Perhaps internet service needs to become a city-owned utility (like water and sewer where I live) rather than a regulated but corporate-owned utility (like telephone where I live).
DaveN – Their argument is that there is no monopoly, since you can get cable TV equivalence through other channels (via Internet, Dish, etc.), and broadband access through other channels, too (DSL, Google Fiber, satellite). It’s not an argument that passes the laugh test.
While treating broadband as a utility would not be a panacea, it would allow for regulation of pricing and other features.
I’m not sure that a city-owned utility would be a panacea either, though many communities that have gone that route seem to be pretty happy. Not surprisingly, the telcos and cable companies have sponsored bills in a lot of states (Colorado included) that restrict or prohibit municipalities from doing this. (In Colorado, it’s not outright banned, but it does require a citizen referendum to allow the city to consider it. Centennial just went through one.)
There was a link on the BBC about a year ago, and I was shocked at US internet prices/speed.
On UK TV you can’t watch an ad break without somebody trying to undercut the competition. On my laptop, on which I am currently typing I have just done a speed test- I’m getting an average of 25mbps download, 17mbps upload. I was surprised- this is slow compared to previous tests, where I regularly get 35+. Think part of the problem is my son’s computer which eats anything you can throw at it (he needed one capable of animating for college), plus I think I’m in a weak spot (Just moved- now 30mbps). That is my wireless speed. The desktop connected by wire gets 70mps+. This costs me £25 pm (approx $35-40) unlimited usage, plus access to the BT wireless hotspots across the country
@LH – Yeah, but that’s probably because you’re a bunch of socialists or something who don’t understand how Freedom should work!
When you can clearly state the incremental cost to raise BW for 25 million people, then you can explain to me why it doesn't get done as fast as you would like it to +Dave Hill
+Don Dudas I doubt it would ever done done as fast as I'd like it to, but the current commercial arrangement makes it unlikely that it will happen at all (or, if so, more slowly than it might in other circumstances).
I can tell you if the deal goes thorugh it will happen. Of course the cost to modernize TW network and get all of the infrastructure in place will take close to a year. Alot of moving pieces to integrate all of their facilities in and get the BW bumped to handle the additional load.