And anyway, we are told, open access won't work. Cable networks differ in architecture from telephone systems, which can accommodate thousands of competing Internet providers without mutual interference. Cable companies would open access if they could. The irony here is too thick for 800 words. And now that cable may be the broadband channel of choice, it turns out that designing the cable network to allow multiple ISPs also can't work.
Nothing seems to work, until competitors or governments insist.
With all these people putting their mouth where their money is, it's hard to know which answer is right. Indeed, given the radical changes in broadband access and the billions devoted to finding a better way, it's not even clear a right answer yet exists. It may well be that each home will have three or four channels of broadband access. Competition will make these broadband services good. But if these competing systems don't develop, then the architecture of the cable network becomes important.