Don’t Blame Big Cable. It’s Local Governments That Choke Broadband Competition

[Commentary] Despite public, political, and business interest in greater broadband deployment, not every American has high-speed internet access yet (let alone a choice of provider for really fast, high-capacity service). So who’s really to blame for strangling broadband competition? While popular arguments focus on supposed “monopolists“ such as big cable companies, it’s government that’s really to blame.

Companies can make life harder for their competitors, but strangling the competition takes government. Broadband policy discussions usually revolve around the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), yet it’s really our local governments and public utilities that impose the most significant barriers to entry. Before building out new networks, Internet Service Providers (ISPs) must negotiate with local governments for access to publicly owned “rights of way” so they can place their wires above and below both public and private property. ISPs also need “pole attachment” contracts with public utilities so they can rent space on utility poles for above-ground wires, or in ducts and conduits for wires laid underground. The problem? Local governments and their public utilities charge ISPs far more than these things actually cost. So the real bottleneck isn’t incumbent providers of broadband, but incumbent providers of rights-of-way. These incumbents — the real monopolists — also have the final say on whether an ISP can build a network. They determine what hoops an ISP must jump through to get approval.

[Berin Szoka, Matthew Starr and Jon Henke are with TechFreedom, a non-profit technology policy think tank. TechFreedom is supported by foundations as well as web companies and broadband providers (including Google).]