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Comcast, Charter Dominate US; Telcos 'Abandoned Rural America,' Report Says (arstechnica.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Comcast is the only choice for 30 million Americans when it comes to broadband speeds of at least 25Mbps downstream and 3Mbps upstream, the report says. Charter Communications is the only choice for 38 million Americans. Combined, Comcast and Charter offer service in the majority of the U.S., with almost no overlap. Yet many Americans are even worse off, living in areas where DSL is the best option. AT&T, Verizon, and other telcos still provide only sub-broadband speeds over copper wires throughout huge parts of their territories. The telcos have mostly avoided upgrading their copper networks to fiber -- except in areas where they face competition from cable companies. These details are in "Profiles of Monopoly: Big Cable and Telecom," a report by the Institute for Local Self-Reliance (ILSR). The full report should be available at this link today. "The broadband market is broken," the report's conclusion states. "Comcast and Charter maintain a monopoly over 68 million people. Some 48 million households (about 122 million people) subscribe to these cable companies, whereas the four largest telecom companies combined have far fewer subscribers -- only 31.6 million households (about 80.3 million people). The large telecom companies have largely abandoned rural America -- their DSL networks overwhelmingly do not support broadband speeds -- despite years of federal subsidies and many state grant programs."
What free market?
The last mile cable monopoly is actually government regulated and sponsored monopoly called "Franchise Agreements". There is little or more likely, no "choice" for consumers.
Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.
Because people don't oust the legislators that are bribed at the state and federal levels with campaign contributions. The history of utilities has shifted dramatically since the breakup of the Bell Companies.
First the telcos tried to get state authority ceded to federal jurisdiction, then found a way to get an FCC Chair to actually believe that they were exempt from Title II so that net neutrality was another fuzzy issue that could be propaganda-controlled to cede the FCC's authority to provide a truly neutral space. Game won. But not by you, or I.
---- Teach Peace. It's Cheaper Than War.
There is no free market. These are government-granted monopolies. The local governments select a single cable and single phone company to service their area, and prohibit other companies from offering services.
Not in my state.
In Missouri, it is illegal, by state law, for any municipality, county, township, or other political subdivision to create a monopoly franchise agreement with any user of the public right of way. Missouri Revised Statues 67.1842.5.
On the other hand, Missouri also outlawed municipal broadband. Telco lobbyists were perfectly willing to allow theoretical "competition" that didn't actually exist, but moved very quickly to eliminate the very real possibility of actual competition materializing.