American ISPs are a Monopoly and Need to Be Controlled
By: Matt Anderson
Tags: Technology, Change, Internet, Monopoly, Antitrust

My family and I live in the country where internet is scarce. There are thousands of acres where there is no internet available short of satellite which is lackluster to say the least. I am fortunate to have an unmetered connection, but the fastest speed I can get today is 25Mbps down and 3Mbps up from a bonded DSL connection. I also pay a hefty $87/month for this “luxury”. That has come down from the $106/month when I first started with the company and had a measly 15Mbps down and a choice of 1Mbps or 2Mbps up, with the latter adding another $2 to my monthly bill. I opted to pay the extra money.

The lack of internet availability and astronomical cost where it can be gotten all came as a shock to me. We moved out of a small city where I had 60Mbps down and something like 5Mpbs up for only $55/month with a guarantee the price would never increase but my speed would. I had been with the company for nearly 10 years and in that time my speed went from 3Mbps down to 60Mbps while my price had only risen $5, but the last raise came with the guarantee.

My country ISP is in the process of running fiber, as most are. I have now been calling for 2 and a half years to see when fiber would be run. 2 weeks ago they ran a fiber trunk from their office to the nearest town which runs right in front of my house. They now say it will take another 14 months before that trunk line is operational and can provide fiber to my house!

These “internet dark age” years lead me to the conclusion that ISPs are monopolies operating in America illegally, and nobody seems to care. Let’s take a look at a new subdivision for example. If ISP1 agrees with the land developer to provide their services to every single house, there is sometimes an agreement that keeps other ISPs out for a certain time. That sounds like a violation of the anti trust agreements to me.

Since each ISP has to run their own cabling, if they deem it’s not worth their effort they won’t run cabling to certain areas. This means it’s a geographical monopoly and the only way you can choose another provider is to sell your most expensive purchase, your house, and move to another location.

Just a couple years ago in Nashville, Tennessee Google came in and started running fiber after going through all the proper channels. Comcast and AT&T both got scared and their marketing tactics showed it. In a final act of desperation they teamed up and went after Google to stop the competition. Turns out they each were on the lease for the telephone poles and Google wasn’t, so the county was caught in a breech of terms and their hands were tied. Here is one website that has some details and is trying to raise support and have an ordinance passed: http://www.googlefibernashville.com/. I am not being compensated by this, just sharing to highlight the facts.

How can this be resolved?

In my humble opinion, if the ISPs shared the cabling I believe this would go a long way to stop the monopolies. The internet connects the world, but the ISPs keep the neighborhoods segregated. If there was a way that a connected house could choose their provider, then when the homeowners or renters decide that ISP doesn’t have good customer support, they could cancel and call another, merely needing to swap ISP hardware such as modems.

As to who would do maintenance, that’s the million dollar question I suppose. Personally, I’d love to see the internet cabling handled like roads — leave it up the municipalities to create the webbing, but make sure they are all connected at the borders. It’s not like we have to drive only a Chevy in one town or a Ford in another. All makes of vehicles can drive on the same road.

What’s the point anyway?

You might be asking yourself, why does any of this even matter? It matters because I’ve had to work with several ISPs, some personally, others professionally. There are ISPs out there that have such low customer service numbers they seem truly terrified of something like this and would most likely be willing to risk just about everything to keep their monopoly alive because without it, they wouldn’t have a business.

Competition! Why is it that I am paying $85/month for internet that’s so terribly slow anyway after paying $55/month just 10 miles away? I have the choice of either this or no internet — there is no competition. Besides, if you could choose any internet company in the nation, how would that affect your pricing? We would see nationwide internet prices drop faster than a tank free falling from a C130!

This would also boost the American economy because one day you might only be paying $30/month for internet. That price reduction could possibly equal billions of “free” money added to the American purchasing power. With a population of 328,915,700 in a census in 2019 and taking just 60% of those to account for rural houses with no available internet access and those with internet availability who choose not to partake would be 197,349,420. If those 60% were to save just $10/month that would be $1,973,494,200/month saved for the American population. What do you think that would do to our economy?