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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."
This is one of those areas where I advocate for more government involvement. Allow cities/counties to build out their own local infrastructure, and allow regional ISPs to then piggyback on it ( for a maintenance fee ) and provide services.
Internet access ranks up there with utilities anymore, so let's start treating it as such.
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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.
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I think taxpayers have plowed something like $4B into rural broadband, it is time for Ajit to call Comcast and Charter and ask for a refund. $2B each.
Or, municipalities could just grow their own, oh wait, they can't, every time they try Comcast and Charter sue them.
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.
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This is actually a perfect example of government regulation run amok.
This is not surprising considering these guys lobby the government to consider broadband deployments acceptable at 50% of a large swath of an area. Really, the entire system is broken, not just the telecom industry but the way we do business altogether in America.
This is the root of the 'problem' - local governments negotiate exclusive agreements for various physical plants; cable cos get pole space which they usually actually have to rent from some entity, be it the ILEC, power utility, or the government. Telcos (ILECs usually, though CLECs are not different in this) either owned the pole space and so have the physical plant via incumbency and so offer DSL, or rented from the 'owner' and have virtually perpetual agreements, given that POTS was once critical, and now telephone is just a must-carry issue...
If the local government won't permit competitive cable TV-style franchises, this will not change soon. Wireless solutions are inadequate, even 5G will not really work in urban areas, though 600MHz could revolutionize rural delivery. Ethernet/MPLS-type delivery would work, but pole rentals are the problem, and that is the equivalent of competitive Cable TV-style delivery, with the competitive issue still in play.
New York seems to actually intend to kick out Charter Spectrum, for failing to deliver. This is actually NY invalidating the TWC/Bright House mergers, essentially making Charter unwind these and go away. No good can come of this, but perhaps it goes to appeal, and then NY says the era of exclusive agreements is over, and competitors come in to fight for share.
I truly doubt this is fixable in my lifetime. Geography and population cause problems in the US that just don't exist in Europe and Asia, where density solves the cost equation so much easily. Britain has a very different governmental structure, good and bad, and other nations for better or worse are just not the US. Several wireless technologies were promised, none delivered. But we hope and hope. And pay and pay.
deleting the extra space after periods so i can stay relevant, yeah.
Satellite is not a viable replacement for many high-speed internet needs. You can't use it for any sizeable Netflix/Hulu usage due to bandwidth limits and online gaming... forget it.
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It's not a monopoly. has been illegal to do this for years.
It's been illegal for properties to do this. That is, apartments, condos, and HOAs. City and county governments on the other hand...
APK quotes people (including myself) without context and should not be trusted. Just thought you should know.
should any of those rural counties wish to create their own broadband services Comcast will be happy to send in lawyers to point out that there are state laws explicitly prohibiting municipal broadband services in there area. I mean, "abandoned" implies they'd be left alone...
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Fiber has become cheap enough that overhead/aerial service can be competitive pretty easily on a local scale with an average distance between passed homes of ~300' and 30% penetration, as long as the utility owning the poles will be cooperative. A 1-mile aerial "spur" is competitive with an $800 installation fee, using existing poles.
About the only people that cannot be competitively served are those that can't pool 100 customers in a 10-mile radius.
When there aren't utility poles that can be used, the density requirement generally doubles, and if you need to go underground (in a rural area), the cost doubles again.
And, wireless has gotten to the point that offering competitive "broadband" speeds works well if you have the terrain to support it.
New York is one of the most densely populated cities in the world, with a population of ~ 8.6 million and that's the best you can do?
That's a totally broken system, and the fact you think a choice of 3 in New York is good is a bit odd.
As far as making their investment back, TFA explains
despite years of federal subsidies and many state grant programs.
They're being paid to supply rural Internet, and they still won't do it.