I was disappointed to find that my internet service had acquired a new, lower usage cap of 60 gig per month, and speeds capped at 10 mbps, along with a price increase. So now I'm paying more than double what I was paying before, for poorer service. It's an absurdity that exists in Canada, writes Bill St. Arnaud, because of the cable-telco duopoly that exists here. But when " we demonstrated that we could build our own dark fiber and light it at a fraction of the cost that the telcos wanted for their lower bandwidth managed service" the internet service providers quickly changed their tune on pricing for fibre backbones.
The same logic, he writes, holds for home internet. "Google, Amazon, Neflix et al need to partner together to develop a similar strategy in the battle against the telco/cableco cartel." Well, yeah, but then these providers would merge, and we'd be back at a monopoly or duopoly. Competition doesn't last long. The providers always merge. That's why there's no response other than regulation for bandwidth provision. The market is a poor poor determinate of pricing the moment providers even whiff that they are providing an essential service. Of course, when the providers also own the regulators ("the Chair of Canada's regulator (CRTC) sounds like a spokesperson for Bell Canada"), that's when you get into the situation we're in. "We need another Teddy Roosevelt to take a big stick and break up this oligopoly which is choking innovation and dragging down the economy as a whole."
The same logic, he writes, holds for home internet. "Google, Amazon, Neflix et al need to partner together to develop a similar strategy in the battle against the telco/cableco cartel." Well, yeah, but then these providers would merge, and we'd be back at a monopoly or duopoly. Competition doesn't last long. The providers always merge. That's why there's no response other than regulation for bandwidth provision. The market is a poor poor determinate of pricing the moment providers even whiff that they are providing an essential service. Of course, when the providers also own the regulators ("the Chair of Canada's regulator (CRTC) sounds like a spokesperson for Bell Canada"), that's when you get into the situation we're in. "We need another Teddy Roosevelt to take a big stick and break up this oligopoly which is choking innovation and dragging down the economy as a whole."
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