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Are America's Big Telecom Companies Suppressing Fiber? (salon.com)
Salon just published a new interview with Susan Crawford, the author of "Fiber: The Coming Tech Revolution -- And Why America Might Miss It."
Crawford has spent years studying the business of these underground fiber optic cables that make fast internet possible. As it turns out, the internet infrastructure situation in the United States is almost hopelessly compromised by the oligopolistic telecom industry, which, due to lack of competition and deregulation, is hesitant to invest in their aging infrastructure... This is going to pose a huge problem for the future, Crawford warns, noting that politicians as well as the telecom industry are largely inept when it comes to prepping us for a well-connected future...
"The decay started in 2004 when -- maybe out of gullibility, maybe out of naivety, maybe out of calculation -- then-chairman of the FCC, Michael Powell, now the head of cable association -- was persuaded that the telcos would battle it out with the cable companies, that their cable modem services would battle it out with wireless, and all of that competition would do a much better job than any regulatory structure could at ensuring that every American had a cheap and fantastic connection of the internet. That's just turned out that's just not true. Since then, he deregulated the entire sector -- and as a result, we got this very stagnant status quo where in most urban areas -- usually the local cable monopoly has a lock in the market and can charge whatever it wants for whatever type of quality services they're providing, leaving a lot of people out."
"Because Americans don't travel," she adds, "you don't get the sense of what a third-world country the U.S. is becoming when it comes to communications."
"The decay started in 2004 when -- maybe out of gullibility, maybe out of naivety, maybe out of calculation -- then-chairman of the FCC, Michael Powell, now the head of cable association -- was persuaded that the telcos would battle it out with the cable companies, that their cable modem services would battle it out with wireless, and all of that competition would do a much better job than any regulatory structure could at ensuring that every American had a cheap and fantastic connection of the internet. That's just turned out that's just not true. Since then, he deregulated the entire sector -- and as a result, we got this very stagnant status quo where in most urban areas -- usually the local cable monopoly has a lock in the market and can charge whatever it wants for whatever type of quality services they're providing, leaving a lot of people out."
"Because Americans don't travel," she adds, "you don't get the sense of what a third-world country the U.S. is becoming when it comes to communications."
Municipal monopoly agreements DO NOT EXIST in the United States. Period. They have been banned, at the Federal level, since the Telecommunications Act of 1996. True story.
What you have is an example of first mover effect and natural monopolies. But Libertarians hate to admit to those, as they are natural market failure mechanisms, and they don't like to admit that the market can have inherent failure modes.
Citation: http://time.com/5535292/north-...
Wow you're telling me Fox News and Conservative propaganda talk radio haven't informed you of the MASSIVE GOP election fraud campaign in North Carolina? lemme guess they blamed it on George Soros and the "deep state" lol. Do yourself a honest favor. look here
Then those IDs need to be free and shouldn't require you to drive a long distance to get to them. In many parts of the country the local branches to get a ID or license have been closed.
"According to the Texas driver’s license handbook, the closest driver’s license office to Terlingua is in Alpine. According to Google Maps, that is 83.4 miles one way, or about 167 miles round trip. "
While this is a extreme situation, it still disenfranchises US citizens who have a right to vote. Driving is a privilege so I have no problem with a barrier to entry for a driver license, but voting is a right, there should be little to no barrier of entry beyond being a citizen. This is a difficult problem, but one even my home town is effected by. The last place in the south side of my town to get a ID was closed. Most people on that south side are too poor to drive and now have to travel to another town to get a state ID. Its a 30 minute car ride, or a 30 minute bus ride and a 15 minute walk. That doesn't seem like much, but the offices close around the time these people get off work and they are typically too poor to have nice things like PTO to waste on getting a ID.