Broadband Is Too Important to Be Left to Cable-Phone Duopoly

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Dewayne Hendricks <dewayne () warpspeed com>
Date: August 14, 2005 11:38:32 AM EDT
To: Dewayne-Net Technology List <dewayne-net () warpspeed com>
Subject: [Dewayne-Net] Broadband Is Too Important to Be Left to Cable- 
Phone Duopoly
Reply-To: dewayne () warpspeed com


Broadband Is Too Important to Be Left to Cable-Phone Duopoly
By Rob Pegoraro
Sunday, August 14, 2005; F07

<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/13/ 
AR2005081300149.html?referrer=email&referrer=email>

Competition in the market for broadband Internet access remains  
alive, despite what can look like a concerted campaign by big  
business and government to abolish it. The latest such steps were a  
Supreme Court ruling and a Federal Communications Commission vote  
that allowed cable and phone companies to block competitors from  
their networks.

Be glad that competitors are still around: The phone and cable  
incumbents still fall short of many customers' needs, and it's up to  
other companies to meet them.

But as long as telephone and cable TV lines are the only affordable  
ways to pipe data to and from a house, any challenger to Comcast,  
Verizon and their ilk must first go into business with them. The  
competitor has to rent a phone or cable company's wires -- lines  
installed under a government-sanctioned monopoly -- to reach any  
customer's home.

Figuring out how that should happen has consumed thousands of  
billable hours from lawyers and lobbyists over the past decade. And  
so far, competition has taken off only in half of the cable-phone  
duopoly.

Since the dawn of cable-modem access, such cable operators as Comcast  
and Cox have almost never allowed other companies to offer Internet  
access over their lines. The Supreme Court's "Brand X" ruling in late  
June codified this state of affairs, ruling that cable operators  
could not be forced to let in competitors.

Phone companies such as Verizon, however, have been far more  
welcoming. Competing digital-subscriber-line providers did start out  
with the benefit of regulations mandating their access -- a good  
thing, given the early obstructionist behavior of many phone carriers  
-- but they've grown even as those rules have loosened.

The FCC's vote two Fridays ago will end the obligation of incumbent  
phone companies to rent their DSL connections to competitors (they  
still must sell bare phone lines at a discount, allowing other firms  
to set up their own DSL services over them).

Earlier FCC decisions relieved phone companies from having to lease  
particular elements of their networks and allowed them to bar  
competitors from such new networks as Verizon's Fios fiber-optic  
service.

A choice of broadband access that's limited to the cable company and  
the phone company would be extraordinarily bad. Although such firms  
have done a remarkable job of rolling out service, they let down  
customers in other ways.

One is price. Far too often, cable and phone companies have balked at  
cutting rates, instead increasing download speeds whether or not  
customers want the extra performance. Even the $30 a month that  
Verizon charges for DSL is more than many dial-up users want to pay.  
The market should have room for firms that charge less for a slower,  
but still always-on, connection.

Another is reliability -- the subject of numerous complaints from  
Comcast, Cox and Verizon users. The fault rarely involves a break in  
cable or phone lines; it's the Internet service provided over them,  
which competitors often deliver more consistently.

Just getting connected can be an ordeal. I've heard from many readers  
who have waited weeks for Verizon to set up their DSL; some decided  
to cancel their orders and go with competitors, even though it meant  
paying more. One of my colleagues actually had Verizon unplug his DSL  
service -- then offer to charge him more for a slower connection. A  
competitor quickly had him back online.

A third failing is tech support. If you like simply being told to  
reboot your modem and computer whenever you call, even if it's an  
obvious service interruption, you'll love the incumbents.

[snip]

Living with technology, or trying to? E-mail Rob Pegoraro atrob () twp com.

Weblog at: <http://weblog.warpspeed.com>



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