I think it’s worth reprinting Doc Searls’ latest comment on the sclerotic nature of U.S. internet connections at the local level. Incumbent telecom carriers continue to impede market growth by offering crippled, asymmetric internet service, and by subordinating internet connectivity to older technologies.

Searls’ comment:

Local cooling

The U.S. continues to lag in Net connectivity. Right now it’s down to 15th, according to one among a variety of discouraging surveys. Kevin Barron:

While I admire the desire to drill down into the details, no matter how you count the lifeboats, the fact is the Titanic is still going down. Unless we wake up and realize how critical the Net has become to every facet of society, including our economy, we will wake up in icy waters instead.

Meanwhile, House Bill 1587 in North Carolina, misleadingly titled “The Local Gov’t Fair Competition Act”, would effectively prevent local governments from offering public services that “compete” with the barely competitive private phone/cable duopolies that currently offer Internet service as a side dish to their legacy offerings.

This legislation is nowhere informed by the realization that Internet service should be as much a public utility as roads, water, electricity and waste treatment.

What we really need is opening up of data connectivity to all kinds of enterprise and grass-roots initiative, with government help in the form of easements to both private and public network build-out efforts. We need the market to open up for other parties to do what the incumbent carriers will not do.

What we don’t need is more pro-incumbent carrier legislation that will further lock out not just competition at the connectivity level, but prevention of countless businesses and public services that can only thrive on a wide open and ubiquitously deployed Internet.

In more hopeful news, my ISP, Sonic.net, lead by CCSF alumnus Dane Jasper, has applied to be a phone company. No doubt Sonic is being forced to do this due to the monopolistic machinations of our local oligarchy.

This entry was posted on Friday, June 8th, 2007 at 11:51 am and is filed under Digital Rights / Digital Wrongs, General, Internet, Pigopoly. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.