NNSquad - Network Neutrality Squad
[ NNSquad ] Merger Made Comcast Strong, U.S. Web Users Weak
Merger Made Comcast Strong, U.S. Web Users Weak
http://j.mp/V4xYz6 (Bloomberg)
"On a gray day in February 2010, Brian Roberts sat facing the U.S.
Senate Judiciary Committee's antitrust subcommittee. The panel was
holding its first hearing on a proposed merger between two of the
country's most powerful media companies, the cable distribution giant
Comcast Corp. and the entertainment conglomerate NBC Universal.
Roberts, the chief executive officer of Comcast, was a calm and
friendly witness. If the Justice Department's Antitrust Division and
the Federal Communications Commission approved the merger, Comcast's
future as the largest distributor of information in the country would
be assured ...
It doesn't have to be this way. Other developed countries have a
watchdog to ensure that all their citizens are connected at cheap
rates to fiber-optic networks. In South Korea, more than half of
households are already connected to fiber lines, and those in Japan
and Hong Kong are close behind. In the U.S., only about 7 percent of
households have access to fiber, and it costs six times as much as in
Hong Kong. Rather than try to ensure that the U.S. will lead the
world in the information age, American politicians have removed all
regulation of high-speed Internet access and have allowed steep market
consolidation. The cable industry has done its best to foil municipal
efforts to provide publicly overseen fiber Internet access. Now, the
U.S. has neither a competitive marketplace nor government oversight."
- - -
--Lauren--
Lauren Weinstein (lauren@vortex.com): http://www.vortex.com/lauren
Co-Founder: People For Internet Responsibility: http://www.pfir.org/pfir-info
Founder:
- Network Neutrality Squad: http://www.nnsquad.org
- PRIVACY Forum: http://www.vortex.com/privacy-info
- Data Wisdom Explorers League: http://www.dwel.org
- Global Coalition for Transparent Internet Performance: http://www.gctip.org
Member: ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy
Lauren's Blog: http://lauren.vortex.com
Google+: http://vortex.com/g+lauren / Twitter: http://vortex.com/t-lauren
Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800 / Skype: vortex.com
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