I lived in Charlotte, NC when Google announced GFiber was coming. Instantly AT&T started running as much fiber as possible and Charter(spectrum) was trying to get people locked into cheaper 3 year contracts. Ultimately AT&T got fiber first so we went with them, and it was vastly better. Charter was getting 60% packet loss every night from oversold infrastructure they didn’t care to fix, as before the announcement the only competition was AT&T uverse in some parts of the city.
Comment on Cable lobby vows “years of litigation” to avoid bans on blocking and throttling
hansl@lemmy.world 5 months agoNah, just allow communities to build their local infrastructure. Trust me. You don’t need to threaten the status quo, just allow the market to compete.
Every town where local fiber is available, Comcast and Spectrum suddenly have cheaper and more reliable service. It’s magical.
spikederailed@lemmy.world 5 months ago
WarlordSdocy@lemmy.world 5 months ago
I mean yeah that’s what monopolies do. They eliminate competition by either buying it out or lowering their prices/improving service to drive them out of business so they can then raise prices again. Just cause a small company can come in and make things better while they’re able to be around doesn’t mean we shouldn’t go after these monopolies and cut them down so they can’t have this power.
hansl@lemmy.world 5 months ago
Municipal broadband is not a small company though. It’s a cooperative owned by residents.
And in many states it’s actually illegal. Which makes no sense.
WarlordSdocy@lemmy.world 5 months ago
Probably companies like Comcast making sure there isn’t anything to disrupt their monopolies. Another reason to break them up so they can’t have that much power.