Lack of Competition Holds Back U.S. Broadband
Linked by Howard Fosdick on Thu 24th Jan 2013 10:12 UTC
Internet & Networking In the past, OS News has discussed how U.S. broadband access lags many other countries in terms of cost, speed, and availability. Now, this detailed report from the New America Foundation tells why. It all comes down to a lack of competition among the carriers, which can be traced back to the days when cable companies were granted local monopolies. The report argues that "...data caps... are hardly a necessity. Rather, they are motivated by a desire to further increase revenues from existing subscribers and protect legacy services such as cable television from competing Internet services." The report's conclusion: don't expect improvements without legislative action.
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TL;DR
by Alfman on Thu 24th Jan 2013 15:41 UTC
Alfman
Member since:
2011-01-28

We need a TL;DR version...

In every place I've ever lived (in the US) the broadband provider was an absolute monopoly. It's their way or plain dialup (I guess satellite is always an option, uck). Further out west they've got verizon fios in addition to optimum online, and in that market they fight over customers. I wish we had verizon fios here. Competition works, but only to the extent that it exists.

Edit: It seems the article focuses more on mobile.

Edited 2013-01-24 15:57 UTC

Reply Score: 3

RE: TL;DR
by Casey99 on Thu 24th Jan 2013 16:16 in reply to "TL;DR"
Casey99 Member since:
2011-07-14

FiOS isn't really that competitive. It is great service, but you pay a lot for it and then some.

Reply Parent Score: 2

RE[2]: TL;DR
by Alfman on Thu 24th Jan 2013 17:15 in reply to "RE: TL;DR"
Alfman Member since:
2011-01-28

Casey99,

A brother in law has FIOS, and the difference is largely due to taxes. Someone explain this logic to me, verizon customers have to pay $20+ in taxes whereas optimum online customers don't. I realise that technically verizon are classified as a telco (sales taxes) where as cable companies are not. But these days both of them offer THE EXACT SAME SERVICES (TV, Phone, Internet). It just seems like the law is playing favouritism to me.

Reply Parent Score: 4

RE[2]: TL;DR
by xaoslaad on Thu 24th Jan 2013 18:17 in reply to "RE: TL;DR"
xaoslaad Member since:
2006-03-07

If you say so. I had only cable internet from Comcast and after a few price hikes to a little over $70 PLUS 250GB data caps I moved to FIOS for internet only.

I pay just under $55 ($54.95 or 99 or something like that) now for FIOS each month for 15/5 which is FASTER than comcast and, oh.. no data caps.

Verizon are a bunch of shit heads too, but don't tell me FIOS doesn't have competitive prices, caps, speeds, etc. That's a crock.

Edited 2013-01-24 18:18 UTC

Reply Parent Score: 1

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