Blows Against the Empire

[Commentary] Years ago, Comcast and Time Warner Cable and their brethren carried out a series of swaps and deals aimed at dividing up the country’s cable subscribers. With Comcast's proposed merger with Time Warner Cable, we'll reach an unwelcome tipping point: if the Federal Communications Commission and Congress don't stop the merger, the combined company will, on its own, control 50 percent of the Internet access market for speeds over 25 Mbps.

Now that the government has been through the learning process of the NBCU merger, it understands that the hidden grinding power of Comcast is deeply related to its size. When one company can decide at its leisure -- under no pressure from either competition or oversight -- how, when, and why particular information reaches more than half of American households, at what price, we've got a problem.

Maybe someday we'll develop the industrial policy that will get the nation the upgrade to fiber and the ubiquitous, cheap connectivity we need to compete on the global stage. Until then, it's good to hear the other side of the Comcast discussion speaking with one voice. If the government doesn't listen, they'll be setting a new standard for tone-deafness.

[Crawford is the John A. Reilly Visiting Professor in Intellectual Property at the Harvard Law School]