Cable Wins the Broadband Battle
November 02, 2011
| Our friends at Media Access Project posted this great article from Susan Crawford in the Harvard Law Review:
OK, technically, this is a law review article, in the sense that it appears in a law review. But it is really a compellingly written, jargon free, extremely accessible essay about how cable has won and is rapidly becoming the unregulated monopoly provider of broadband. Susan Crawford, who has become the leading telecommunications policy analyst of our time (at least in RoadMAP's view), explains that wireless isn't a substitute for wired networks and that the phone companies are toast. Because they control content, the specter of cable company control is much more troubling than other natural monopolies like electricity or water distribution. The Big Squeeze: The Communications Crisis in America
The looming cable monopoly is prompting a crisis in American communications. As the big squeeze continues, the genuine economic and cultural problems created by this monopoly may become more obvious to all Americans. We could tell this story by comparing the market power of the major cable companies in this country to the worst days of the railroad and oil trusts of the early 20th century; we could do it by comparing our country's policies on high-speed Internet access - policies pushed relentlessly forward by the incumbent network operators - to the plans of our developed-country brethren; we could do it by gathering anonymous anecdotes from people who have tried to do transactions with the cable companies and are now afraid of retribution from them. Finally, we could take a deep breath and examine our country's approach to "culture"- once we had the courage to say the word - and the effect of these singular giant pipes on our shared future. However we decide to proceed, we should pay attention to these pipes.
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