NNSquad - Network Neutrality Squad
[ NNSquad ] Re: Obama Broadband? / ITIF: "Competition to take on telecom and cable is 'misguided' idea"
On 01/10 17:22, Vint Cerf wrote:
> I tend to agree with Atkinson - we have not seen much incentive for
> additional competition and in rural regions, the customer base may not
> support much competition. This does NOT mean, however, that the
> incumbents can be the only players. It only means that any particular
> area probably does not support more than one supplier or two
> competitors.
> Vint
I believe that the distinction between "supplier" and "competitor" is
an important one. There's no reason that the latter must require
expensive and disruptive broadband overbuilds, if reasonable
requirements for competition (or, arguably more radically, municipal
ownership) of deployed broadband outside plant resources were in
place.
One concept that I cannot endorse is the handing out of new "broadband
expansion" tax credits to the existing large incumbant ISPs without
some form of ironclad ("you don't follow through -- you gotta pay it
all back") disclosure and neutrality requirements. Simply helping
them to expand and increase speeds, if they intend to continue their
current game plan, is utterly unacceptable. Taxpayer support should
not be a reward for increasingly secretive, restrictive, anti-consumer,
and anticompetitive operational practices by the giant ISPs.
--Lauren--
NNSquad Moderator