<story><title>A tech antitrust problem no one is talking about: US broadband providers</title><url>https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2020/10/the-tech-antitrust-problem-no-one-is-talking-about/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>908B64B197</author><text>I&amp;#x27;m always surprised this isn&amp;#x27;t discussed more.&lt;p&gt;Big tech is accused of being monopolistic, but there is a constant flow of new players in the field, all gaining market shares and building the Next Big Thing, while telecom providers are pretty stagnant.&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;m curious why cities don&amp;#x27;t directly lay down the infrastructure work for broadband access. In some cases that might raise property value enough that the town could make it&amp;#x27;s money back in very little time.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>pottertheotter</author><text>There are a lot of municipalities doing exactly what you say and making the money back fast. But a lot of states have blocked doing this, and the incumbents fight like crazy to turn people against the idea. My favorite way of implementing it is open access. The city installs and owns the infrastructure and anyone can come be an ISP on it. You get great competition. It&amp;#x27;s basically the same as how it works with the community owning the roads and you pick who you want to service your house (FedEx, UPS, yourself, DoorDash, the local roofing guy, etc.)&lt;p&gt;The other thing that would be worthwhile is local loop unbundling, which is basically open access but with existing providers having to open their infrastructure.&lt;p&gt;I highly recommend muninetworks.org and their podcast if you want to learn more about municipal broadband.</text></comment>
<story><title>A tech antitrust problem no one is talking about: US broadband providers</title><url>https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2020/10/the-tech-antitrust-problem-no-one-is-talking-about/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>908B64B197</author><text>I&amp;#x27;m always surprised this isn&amp;#x27;t discussed more.&lt;p&gt;Big tech is accused of being monopolistic, but there is a constant flow of new players in the field, all gaining market shares and building the Next Big Thing, while telecom providers are pretty stagnant.&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;m curious why cities don&amp;#x27;t directly lay down the infrastructure work for broadband access. In some cases that might raise property value enough that the town could make it&amp;#x27;s money back in very little time.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>jancsika</author><text>&amp;gt; I&amp;#x27;m curious why cities don&amp;#x27;t directly lay down the infrastructure work for broadband access.&lt;p&gt;In a lot of states there is legislation banning them from doing just that.&lt;p&gt;Plus-- where are all the videos demoing what it&amp;#x27;s like having a fiber connection, to rouse all the people who live in internet deserts? For fuck&amp;#x27;s sake, the article references kids lurking around Taco Bell &amp;quot;scrounging for internet.&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;If you are a technologist with a fiber connection, please take five minutes away from overclocking your company&amp;#x27;s attention-sucking machine to see what it&amp;#x27;s like working toward a goal that is 100% non-creepy.&lt;p&gt;Edit: clarification</text></comment>