Competition, Not Neutrality, Is Key

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Hmm,  Where have I heard that before :-)

Begin forwarded message:

From: dewayne () warpspeed com (Dewayne Hendricks)
Date: May 5, 2010 4:50:18 AM EDT
To: Dewayne-Net Technology List <xyzzy () warpspeed com>
Subject: [Dewayne-Net] Competition, Not Neutrality, Is Key

Competition, Not Neutrality, Is Key
By Bruce Kushnick -- Multichannel News, 5/3/2010 12:01:00 AM
<http://www.multichannel.com/article/452161-Competition_Not_Neutrality_Is_Key.php>

A recent court decision ruled (with caveats) that the Federal Communications Commission did not have the authority over 
the cable companies’ Internet service provisioning, and the complications known as net neutrality (NN), such as 
blocking or in some way limiting a customer’s service. Unfortunately, NN is simply a failure of a market without 
adequate competition.

Our focus has been dragged away from the real issue, the infrastructure. There are phone and cable wired in homes and 
businesses, etc. Those wires should allow someone to pick and choose the services over that wire, and if their Internet 
or broadband provider blocks or degrade their service, the customer can find another provider. Instead, there are only 
two providers in most markets with the same collusive conditions — block all competition. You can’t go elsewhere. 

Thus, even if the net-neutrality issue was “cured” by the FCC, the problems are much deeper and they would still 
continue to plague America’s broadband, Internet and phone customers.

The underlying problem is that the phone and cable companies have taken control of America’s critical infrastructure . 
And under their control over the last 25 years, they’ve failed to adequately upgrade the infrastructure. America is now 
15th in the world in broadband, and now every plan is about “workarounds” of the incumbents or filling ”deployment” 
holes left from the companies’ incompetence — or, more realistically, greed — over public interest. 

And it wasn’t because AT&T, Verizon Communications, et. al. didn’t receive financial incentives. The phone companies 
made massive commitments to rewire entire states, schools, libraries, etc., and received billions per state to do these 
upgrades — yet, the work was never done. We estimate the companies already received $320 billion and counting, as the 
companies continue to get phone rate increases to pay for fiber optics and other services.

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