The broadband gap: Is FCC grabbing for the wrong tool?

[Commentary] The Federal Communications Commission's National Broadband Plan team seems to be thinking reward the inefficient and to tax the affluent. For some reason the task force does not seem to be able to admit that broadband service in the United States is too expensive for a lot of people. It hints at this by noting that only 35% of adults with a annual income of under $20K subscribe to broadband whereas 88% of those with an annual income of over $100K do. It does gloss past a root cause of the relatively high cost of broadband when it notes that "areas with lower incomes have fewer competitors" and " areas with fewer competitors have higher prices." What it does not mention is that, even in areas with some competition, there are almost always only two providers: a cable company and a telephone company. A duopoly of giant, similarly motivated carriers is not normally a recipe for robust competition.