Le Show; 2018-02-25

Transcript

Here it is! From deep inside your audio device of choice. Ladies and gentlemen, I'm no Luddite, Tom. You're no Luddite, Luddite. Luddite, thank you. But I do retain a healthy skepticism about the G-Wizitude that accompanies virtually every technological, quote, advanced, unquote. And, you know, we're how many years now? Two decades into the cellular time? Cellular telephone, the era. Yeah. And my calls keep getting dropped. Hello, can you hear me? What? I... And yet we move steadily forward as if that's not happening. You know, as if, okay, everybody's doing everything on their phones now. Maybe so. Or maybe not. U.S. broadband customers.

Broadband internet customers pay some of the highest prices in the developed world. And getting in return some of the worst service, at least according to the customer satisfaction ratings. Worst customer satisfaction ratings of any industry in America. This is according to Motherboard. They're quoting the FCC's new internet access services report. 13% of developed census blocks. That's their standard of measurements. Can't get broadband at all per the FCC's definition. 44% of census blocks have access to broadband speeds from only one provider. That's called a monopoly, kids. The faster the broadband speeds get, the more monopolized the service is. 44% of census blocks have no access to like super fast, super fast broadband. 41% can only get those speeds from one provider.

85% of U.S. census blocks either can't get super speed from any provider or only one. And the connectivity that feed these wireless networks are monopolized by just a handful of companies, which would mean do-operized or try-operized actually, if you're being picky. Internet service providers in those areas where only one is a provider, routinely jack up prices with little or no real repercussions, like if competition opens the door to arbitrary and necessary usage caps. I tip my usage cap to you, sir, and overage fees, which makes both the cost of the connection and the ability to use competing services far more expensive. And the problem, according to Motherboard, is worse than this data suggests. For years, the FCC has been criticized for this census block approach to measuring deployment. A census block is served if just one home in the census area has access to broadband. They critics try to shift the model toward a more accurate address-based approach,

but are opposed by lobbyists for, guess who? The Internet service provider companies. Motherboard suggests that a reason for this lack of competition at faster speeds is that the phone companies who provide broadband for which it's not profitable enough, quickly enough for their investors liking. Verizon has all but given up on expanding its fiber footprint to focus on making inroads in the wireless video and advertising markets. Can you hear me? Can you hear my ad? Smaller telephone companies have similarly shifted their focus towards business services and upgrade aging DSL lines only in the most profitable areas. In many instances, those companies are so saddled with debt from the many times they've been sold that upgrading their networks is now something they can't afford to do. The spy versus spy game continues.

More and more towns and cities are now building their own broadband networks. That in turn is why lobbyists for Internet service providers have successfully passed protectionist laws in more than 21 states designed to stop that from happening. Can you hear me? Hello, welcome to this show. Welcome to this show. Welcome to this show.

Welcome to this show. Welcome to this show. Welcome to this show. Welcome to this show. Welcome to this show.