{"id":41147,"date":"2014-02-18T14:21:36","date_gmt":"2014-02-18T21:21:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2014\/02\/18\/no-incentive-to-improve-service-just-raise-rates.html"},"modified":"2014-02-18T14:21:36","modified_gmt":"2014-02-18T21:21:36","slug":"no-incentive-to-improve-service-just-raise-rates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2014\/02\/18\/no-incentive-to-improve-service-just-raise-rates.html","title":{"rendered":"No incentive to improve service, just raise rates"},"content":{"rendered":"
When the cable company is also the primary broadband provider, it has no incentive to improve broadband; indeed, given that its actual cash cow is cable TV, it has every incentive to restrict broadband (by quality or price) so as to discourage folks from cutting the cord.<\/p>\n

Which brings us to Comcast buying Time Warner Cable, giving them 19 of the 20 largest metropolitan areas in the US as monopoly holdings.<\/p>\n

'There isn\u2019t a market solution, here: there\u2019s 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 \u2014 to mandate that utilities provide universal access to low-price, high-quality broadband \u2014 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.'<\/i><\/p>\n

Comcast is not, of course, interested in the "global connectivity race." It's only interested in this quarter's profits.\ufeff<\/p><\/div>\n

\n

Embedded Link<\/strong><\/p>\n

Monopolizing bandwidth<\/a>
\n The US is unique in that it has very high broadband prices and an abundance of bandwidth.\n <\/p>\n

View this post on Google+<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When the cable company is also the primary broadband provider, it has no incentive to improve broadband; indeed, given that its actual cash cow is cable TV, it has every incentive to restrict broadband (by quality or price) so as to discourage folks from cutting the cord. Which brings us to Comcast buying Time Warner … Continue reading “No incentive to improve service, just raise rates”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[106],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-41147","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-plusposts"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":131610,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/09\/22\/ooooh-municipalish-1gb-broadband-color-me-intrigued.html","url_meta":{"origin":41147,"position":0},"title":"Ooooh. Municipal(ish) 1Gb broadband? Color me intrigued","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 22-Sep-16 5:37pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Not that our cable is grotesquely slow, but it's hard to argue with More Speed. Also, a private\/public partnership around municipal broadband sounds like an idea I want to encourage. Especially to give Comcast a poke in the nose.http:\/\/www.denverpost.com\/2016\/09\/22\/centennials-gigabit-internet-service-pre-orders\/ Centennial\u2019s gigabit internet service now taking pre-orders Three years after Centennial\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5095,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2003\/11\/02\/golden_opportun.html","url_meta":{"origin":41147,"position":1},"title":"Golden opportunity? Or wildly frustrating money pit?","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 2-Nov-03 9:14pm","format":false,"excerpt":"We received some \"junk mail\" today for \"high-speed Internet access\" from Suburban Broadband. Hmmmmm. - Faster than comparably priced DSL. - Less expensive than a cable modem. - Equal uploadnand...","rel":"","context":"In "My Computer"","block_context":{"text":"My Computer","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/my-computer"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4222,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2003\/10\/13\/good_news_bad_n.html","url_meta":{"origin":41147,"position":2},"title":"Good news, bad news","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 13-Oct-03 1:32pm","format":false,"excerpt":"The bad news first. The company that was trying to set up wireless broadband in our neighborhood, Tenax, has sent around an e-mail to those who had experessed an interest...","rel":"","context":"In "Blogging & Internet"","block_context":{"text":"Blogging & Internet","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2741,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2002\/09\/27\/teases.html","url_meta":{"origin":41147,"position":3},"title":"Teases","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 27-Sep-02 3:39pm","format":false,"excerpt":"We suffer at our house from a severe lack of broadband. DSL (via Qworst) is not available to the house. Cable modem service (via AT&T) is not available to the...","rel":"","context":"In "Hi-Tech"","block_context":{"text":"Hi-Tech","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/hi-tech"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3425,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2002\/11\/25\/rrg_2.html","url_meta":{"origin":41147,"position":4},"title":"Rrg","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 25-Nov-02 11:34am","format":false,"excerpt":"Why, why, why, why, if a simple web applet at the AT&T Broadband site can easily identify that my house is not \"yet\" in the area covered by cable modem...","rel":"","context":"In "Blogging & Internet"","block_context":{"text":"Blogging & Internet","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1508,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2001\/12\/19\/cable_ties.html","url_meta":{"origin":41147,"position":5},"title":"Cable ties","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 19-Dec-01 8:31am","format":false,"excerpt":"We started off, here in Denver, with TCI Cable, the largest cable company in the US. (Denver is a major telenetworking hub, business- and technology-wise, though many folks don't know...","rel":"","context":"In "Personal"","block_context":{"text":"Personal","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/personal"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41147","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41147"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41147\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41147"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41147"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41147"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}