Broadband Speeds

[tw]

From The Economist of 29 Jul 2017:

Without competitors breathing down their necks, monopolists find it easy to make large profits: just ask the 46m American households served by only one broadband provider, who pay high prices for poor service. As a result, trustbusting is one of those rare causes that can unite raging populists with sober academics.

Why do so many Americans pay so much for slower speeds? Why do so many only have one provider? Why so few choices? So many providers (PSINet, Covad, Teligent, Winstar, 360Networks, Viatel, etc) are gone. The philosophy was clearly stated. Net neutrality was wrong because it was done by Clinton. The theory was only a few providers means faster growth. Wrong. Competition and the resulting innovations create growth.

46 million Americans now have no other choice due to no competition. That number increases massively since their political philosophy created duopolies - most everyone only has two (expensive) choices.