For the record, ISP competition was squelched legally, so it's not even really possible to have competition with high speed internet.
The supreme court ruled in 2005 that cable companies were not bound by common carriage laws (they did not have to allow competitors use their lines like phone companies have to). This was followed by a decision by the FCC that DSL was also free to ignore common carriage. So, in most places in the US you have a choice of DSL or Cable and only one company for each, and, in many places (like where I live) there is only one choice (DSL). For anyone more interested in details I wrote a blog post about it a while ago. http://richardshow.org/blog/2008/02/15/free-market-net-neutrality-and-common-carriage/ ... Richard On Fri, Apr 10, 2009 at 4:20 PM, Rupert <[email protected]> wrote: > Yes, it's true that it's limited in the UK. But there's a lot of > competition between providers, which I understand is not the case in > the US - or in Canada. Or at least there was a lot of competition > last time I looked. Hundreds of independent local companies. Elbows > would probably know more and confirm or deny this... > > On 10-Apr-09, at 2:09 PM, Jay dedman wrote: > > > I mentioned this in another thread, but I think it's important enough > > to repost here. In the US, the major broadband providers are planning > > to ending "unlimited" packages and start charging for broadband. > > Time/Warner is the test case. See below. > > > > I've heard that limiting bandwidth is common in Europe (true?), but > > this is new behavior in the US where broadband providers have now > > consolidated into just 4 major corporations that now control internet > > access in most regions. > > > > As private companies, they can do what they want. Customers now must > > start making a choice of who they want to support. > > > > Jay > > > > > > > > __________________________________ > > > > Rep. Eric Massa was outspoken in his opposition to Time Warner Cables > > plan, calling it a monopolistic move to penalize robust Net users and > > stagnate the 21st Century technology needed to rebuild America. > > > > What really happening is TWC is unfairly trying to protect its cable > > TV profits from people switching over to online video. By making it > > prohibitively expensive for their 8.4 million customers to do much > > more than email and basic Web surfing, they hope to kill Internet > > video before its any more popular. > > > > Were going out to our 500,000 activists asking other members of > > Congress to join Massa and call for a thorough investigation of these > > ant-competitive practices. > > > > Making Time Warner the Internets evil poster child is particularly > > urgent now. Other cable and phone providers (including AT&T, Charter, > > Cox and Comcast) are watching TWCs trial balloon with plans to > > implement their own anti-video pricing schemes. > > > > The outreach is below. Heres the presser: > http://www.freepress.net/node/56030 > > > > > > ------------------------------------ > > > > Yahoo! Groups Links > > > > > > > > > > > > ------------------------------------ > > Yahoo! Groups Links > > > > -- Richard (Show) Hall http://richardshow.org [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/videoblogging/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/videoblogging/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: mailto:[email protected] mailto:[email protected] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [email protected] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
