Law in the Internet Society

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EdwardBontkowskiFirstPaper 11 - 10 May 2010 - Main.EdwardBontkowski
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The United States: First World Country, Third World Broadband

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The Potential of an Accessible and Affordable Pipeline

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<		Ultimately, unless the United States government makes a massive overhaul of the current telecommunications regulation infrastructure, the existing duopolies will continue to crush any sense of actual competition within the United States. We will continue to fall even further behind to Europe and Asia with respect to speed, cost, and penetration. The effect that a regulation overhaul would have is enormous. Currently in the United States, over 10 million homes remain unserved, another 50 million are able to subscribe but choose not to because of cost concerns or speed concerns, and the 50 million that are subscribed are stuck with only duopoly choices. With proper regulation, affordable internet connections could reach millions of children, resulting in millions of brains, previously on the other side of the digital divide, to be reached and finally be given one of the greatest learning tools on the planet. Anarchistic distribution channels would become far more efficient and numerous. Broadband penetration would become so high that ideas like high speed wireless networks built solely from personal Wi-Fi connections could become a reality and rid us of the need for giant telecommunication companies to provide our cell phone service.

Once we make the internet affordable (and hopefully eventually free) for every person in the United States, the walls of capitalism will begin to crumble and the changes we have discussed in class will come like a freight train. It all starts with making the pipeline free and accessible.

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>		Ultimately, unless the United States government makes a massive overhaul of the current telecommunications regulation infrastructure, the existing duopolies will continue to crush any sense of actual competition within the United States. Until very recently, courts have been all too willing to continue this regime of dominance. In April 2010, the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals held that federal regulators power was limited and that Comcast was free to block or slow users' access to certain websites and possibly even charge users to get content more quickly from bandwidth intensive sites such as YouTube? . However, even more recently, the FCC has responded by outlining an internet regulatory scheme that splits access from content, a move that helps push the U.S. towards the mythical "network neutrality" (for those who believe in such a thing). While this is a small step for a broken system that will require many steps to fix, it is at least a step in the right direction.

Revision 11r11 - 10 May 2010 - 04:21:54 - EdwardBontkowski
Revision 10r10 - 20 Jan 2010 - 22:27:22 - EdwardBontkowski
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