« The iMPACT of the iPhone and the iPod, Still Coming | Weblog | Get Ready for Some Alternate Views »

If You Call that Choice, You Must Not Get Out Much

Earlier today (Sept. 6), the Justice Department filed comments with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) opposing Net Neutrality. The DoJ, supposedly the protector of consumers and guardian of competition, said that "market forces" were sufficient to do both of those jobs.

That view, of course, is nonsense. Perhaps the DoJ failed to recall that there are no "market forces," and that the market for broadband services is controlled by two industries and that consumers have very little choice. Just how little choice we have was made clear to me earlier this summer. Our Internet Policy Is A Disgrace: Here's The Proof

I've said all along that we have little to no national leadership when it comes to broadband policy. What we do have, masquerading as a legitimate policy, is a de facto policy of leaving it all to the large cable and telecom companies to provide the services we need. For some, the status quo is just fine. But for others of us, the status quo is woefully deficient and we have set the bar incredibly low. We can do better.

In this alternate reality, a duopoly is considered a competitive market. And it's a stretch for that viewpoint to work as well. The FCC has to define broadband very liberally (above 200 Kbs) to even arrive at an assessment that we have a functioning competitive market at work here.

So when the US Department of Justice weighed in last Thursday on the FCC Request for Comments regarding Net Neutrality, I could only see it as somewhat bizzare, because the comment period has long since passed and their claims of a competitive market are so closely aligned to the incumbents' positions as to give one pause to reflect.

I have to admit, I haven't spent a lot of time covering these federal issues because, well, frankly, the pace is excruciating, the outcome is fairly "foregone," and I truly believe that the real action in alternate broadband is at the local, not the federal level.

Nevertheless, I read this piece above and a few others late last week and it made me scratch my head. To wit, here is one federal agency of this administration (DOJ) commenting to another (FCC) after the period for comments has closed. What Up Wid Dat? Surely, that is fairly uncommon?

My conclusion is that DOJ considers themselves either a) outside or above the rules; b) in a special class, where deadlines don't apply; or c) they really prepared their comments early, but either the dog ate them, or they misplaced them behind someone's desk, and just found them and rushed over to the FCC. Huh? "Hey, it fell through a crack, OK?" Bottom Line - They just don't care, even about appearances, any more.

Surely, my comments would hit the circular file if I had filed them at this point.

I was gratified then to have this comment in particular show up, because it offers some good links to market data in Canada and Great Britain. It'll make you see red. This is a helpful comparison of our "competitive" market with truly functioning markets in Canada and Great Britain that provides good perspective.

Here's a hint.

In a functioning competitive market, you generally find an abundance of choices when it comes to the product at hand, and it's not hard to find them.

Here's my conclusion.

We don't have an abundance of choices when it comes to broadband. Not like in Canada or Great Britain. Ergo, we don't have a competitive market, and we're up a creek...

Posted on September 09, 2007 at 08:19 PM

Comments


Post a comment




Remember Me?

(you may use HTML tags for style)