Re: Cyberspace: doomed to become a "vaster wasteland"?

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: "David P. Reed" <dpreed () reed com>
Date: May 1, 2009 11:46:59 AM EDT
To: dave () farber net
Subject: Re: [IP] Re:    Cyberspace: doomed to become a "vaster  
wasteland"?

Cable ISPs and Fiber ISPs are not competing to offer high speed  
Internet - because customers are forced to buy bundles with TV and  
phone that do not separate out the costs.

Imagine a world where buying a Toyota car meant you could only buy gas  
from Toyota Service Stations, and could only park your car in Toyota  
Garages.  I don't think you could argue that gas or parking would be  
competitive.

The likelihood of meaningful competition on usage caps is pretty near  
zero for any particular household.

How many households have the ability to buy the TV deal of their  
choice from one company, and the High Speed Internet deal of their  
choice from another company without paying an "unbundling tax" that  
far exceeds the cost of one or the other service?  I am lucky to be  
able to choose among triple plays from Verizon, Comcast, and RCN.   
(that puts me in the 0.1% of the population that has that much  
choice).  There is essentially no variation among the deals I can  
get.  It seems likely that all will "usage cap" in exactly the same  
way for the same reason: they want to protect their TV businesses.   
Where would competition come from?






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