Michael Powell A Bit Quick To Claim Google Broadband Is Viable Competition
from the slow-down-there,-partner dept
Former FCC chair Michael Powell really, really, really wants to believe that there's viable competition in the broadband market, but he seems to have a history of using tiny experiments (that may go nowhere) as if they prove that there's real competition. You may recall that when he was in charge of the FCC he declared broadband-over-powerlines "the great broadband hope" despite years and years of failed trials. Following his pronouncements on how BPL would present a viable "third" entrant into the competitive space, the prospects for BPL have continued to dwindle.Now he's claiming that Google's latest decision to offer high speed broadband in very limited trials, shows that the market is generating competition just fine without unnecessary interference from the government via any sort of broadband stimulus plan.
Of course, there are a few problems with this. First, Google has only announced stuff, it hasn't done anything yet, and even if it does, it appears the trials will be quite limited. But the bigger issue is this myth that the current market is this free and open market unencumbered by bad gov't regulation. The history of the broadband market is the history of government's subsidizing and favoring large incumbent telcos. The idea that suddenly everyone wants to "protect the free market" for internet access, when the market has never been a free market is pretty silly. What they mean is actually to protect the market for incumbents. Unless, of course, the incumbents are willing to pay back all the subsidies and preferential treatment they've received from the government over the years?
On the whole, I do agree with Powell's position that we should be careful how we implement any national broadband plan, and that the focus should be on more competition -- but I wouldn't take Google's announcement alone to be any sort of "evidence" of a free market in internet access.
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Filed Under: broadband, competition, michael powell
Companies: google
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Additional detail on the Google "offer"
Yeah... sure... the market is doing just FINE in generating competition... NOT!
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not to mention
"The report confirms that at the end of the first decade of the 21st Century, too many Americans still rely on slow, narrowband Internet access or do not use the Internet at all," said NTIA chief Lawrence Strickling in the report's foreward. "Although life without high speed Internet service seems unimaginable for many Americans, for too many others, broadband is still unattainable."
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We don't need interference from the government to create competition, what we need is for the government to stop interfering to limit competition, which is exactly what the government does. We need the government to stop granting cableco/telco/public airwave monopolies to the highest briber ... I mean, bidder.
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Re:
http://www.google.com/tisp/faq.html
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Gov't + Telecom = Tons of CASH
The government won't even see that the RBOCs and MSOs are basically the same types of providers now, but the laws regarding their regulation are still separate. It's the same thing we see all the time here, the technologies moved past the laws, and old business models are struggling to survive.
I personally love the claim by both Cable and the Telecoms that there is a bandwidth shortage so they have to change to metered plans to conserve. Their networks are so stressed for bandwidth and yet the Telecoms are still trying to get a foothold in video with IPTV. Doesn't video require A LOT more bandwidth? Could it be that it's a lot more palatable to tell consumers there's a bandwidth shortage rather than just say we need bigger profits to cover our taxes?
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Re: Gov't + Telecom = Tons of CASH
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sleezy lobbyist
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Google
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