ACLU Study Wary of Broadband Providers

An anonymous reader says "The ACLU recently had a study done that suggests that broadband access is a threat to internet freedom. Their study focuses on the control available to broadband providers who don't have to deal with the same level of competition or regulation as ISP providers. The result is the ability to radically control internet access combined with the omnipresent corporate incentive for profit, whatever the cost to free speech."

Comments

Re:Profit

[Edmund Blackadder]

The problem is that you cannot use anybody else.

most broadband providers have a govt sanctioned monopoly.

And after the recent declarations from the FCC the little competition that was coming from small dsl providers will soon evaporate.

that is impossible

[Edmund Blackadder]

how do you suppose that will happen?

thanks to the fcc the telcos can now exclude competitors from their hubs. The cable companies will never let a competitor on their cable. The cable networks were created with large government subsidies and such subsidies will not come for a duplicate cable network.

This government of ours has ensured that telcos and cable companies will have a monopoly on broadband for a loong time.

Summary is deceptive

[waytoomuchcoffee]

The ACLU did NOT state that "broadband access is a threat to internet freedom". This is a study on the problem of broadband monopolies being created in the cable market only, due to common carrier restrictions.

Re:not in the UK

[Tim C]

There are indeed loads of ISPs here in the UK offering ADSL conncetions.

However, almost all of them get those connections from BT wholesale. If BT decided to start imposing some draconian conditions, we'd still be screwed.

Sure, oftel (the regulator mentioned - OFfice for TELecommunications, iirc) are making lots of noise about BT opening up their exchanges and allowing other companies to install equipment (for a suitable rental fee, of course), but it's not really happening. Last I heard, only one company had actually done so, and only at a couple of exchanges. BT are not making it easy (that's the reason for all the noise).

The UK has plenty of competition amongst residential-level and business-level ISPs, but only really one backbone provider. There are others, of course, but not to homes, the majority of which already have a BT line.

Cheers,

Tim

first amendment

[akb]

Actually, courts have ruled the first amendment does apply to corporations. They are using this to overturn many of the FCC's regulations on ownership, including limits on the percent of the national market that cable companies can own and the TV/newspaper cross ownership ban.