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Lack of competition

"People forget that if your ISP does not give you a good service, you can always use another one."

Flatly NOT TRUE. For the vast majority of subscribers in the US, there is only ONE choice for broadband. For about 20%, there is a choice between 1 cable provider and 1 DSL provider. For a privileged few (about 2%) there are multiple providers in the area for cable/fiber or DSL.

In the end, what ATT is saying has a grain of truth: demands on network resources are rising, due to the transfer of media content. Of course the network is not homogeneous, so there are bottlenecks and slowdowns that occur on a daily basis TODAY. Some of the backbone providers are continuing to upgrade their pipes, some are not. Many of the bottlenecks are not in the backbones, but in the aggregation structures of local/regional providers. For a local cable operator, there is more likely a bottleneck in their local network than in their backbone connection.

What does ATT want? They want everything from favorable regulations to outright subsidies to fix their local/regional problems. In the meantime, they are trying their best to prevent any new competitors from gaining traction in the local markets. They strongarm state and local public utilities commissions. They lobby for federal regulations that usurp the powers of the state and local regulators. They demand rate increases to "upgrade" the monopoly infrastructure, then spend the money on lobbyists and management bonuses.

The real problem that consumers must face is the lack of competitiveness in the Internet access market. It is time to write the FCC and Congress, and your state and local officials.

Posted by: terry flores   Posted on: 04/22/08 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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