Fed-Up Cities Seek to Provide Net Access

[SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: Michael Hiltzik]
[Commentary] Of all the monopolies, oligopolies and other arrangements that subvert progress merely to benefit the few, perhaps the most pernicious is the conspiracy by telephone and cable companies to exercise control over high-speed Internet access. It's unsurprising, therefore, that many local communities have taken matters into their own hands by building or contracting for their own municipal Internet systems. Generally these blanket an area with transmitters based on Wi-Fi wireless technology to bring Web access to residents and small businesses. These communities have acted because they were fed up with the underachieving phone and cable companies, which have always displayed the usual characteristics of entrenched monopolies: They're slow to innovate, expensive and arrogant. Their sluggish rollout of broadband, especially in poor communities, is a national disgrace. Our Stone Age connection speeds are embarrassing — even the heartiest DSL connection in the U.S. is less than a tenth as fast as what's available to subscribers in Japan or France. The standard $40-$50 monthly cost of broadband in the U.S. is double or more what those users pay too. Despite this sorry record, the Federal Communications Commission has supported the incumbents' quest to emasculate all competition, chiefly by allowing them to stonewall rival Internet providers seeking wholesale access to their high-speed lines. In Congress, a bill forbidding localities from offering such services in competition with private companies has been introduced by Rep. Pete Sessions (R-Texas). Rep Sessions, a former employee of SBC Communications, a leading DSL provider, is sitting on pants full of SBC stock options worth more than $500,000, according to his 2004 financial disclosure.
http://www.latimes.com/business/printedition/la-fi-golden20oct20,1,38198...
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