Should Broadband Be a "Utility?" … Or Is Broadband Already That?

Interestingly incumbent cable is now more often being attacked by a competitor that is basicallyamp160from technical and legal standpoints the same kind of operator known as an quotoverbuilderquotNot all that long ago the overbuilder was known as quotludicrousquot amp8230 or at best a slow learner After all the overbuilder is most often tied to the same contractual structure with the rights partner municipality as the incumbent provider It was once quite monetarily difficult to compete It still is But many are now doing with better marketing and in some cases better management and better product In fact many have become quite successfulSo we get to the central question of this piece Should broadband be a utilityFrom the way I39ve framed this you might have a clue to where I standamp160But let39s hear instead from some readers of The Wall Street JournalOn August 12 quotThe 10Pointquot a daily feature in the WSJ that serves as a guide to the day39s top content and includes a question with answers included a question about whether the government should do more to dictate the price and availability of highspeed internet There were four answersFirst from the quotleavealonequot contingentamp160Pat Janecek of Alabama wrote quotDoes the government install maintain and troubleshoot high speed internetamp160Are they the internet provideramp160If not then they should stay out of the pricing businessamp160We don39t need more bureaucrats setting prices for products they know nothing aboutamp160Internet pricing should be a business decisionquotIn a similar vein Rich Irwin from Ohio wrote quotNoamp160I say let the free market and the consumer decideamp160If I don39t want highspeed internet I shouldn39t have to pay for it nor subsidize others who doquotOn the bringontheregs sideamp160Caf Dowlah of New Yorkamp160wrote quotYes internet should be considered aamp160utility like gas water and electricityamp160Government as an agent of collective will should intervene in the market make access to an internet connection mandatory for every home where a cable connection is needed just like gas water and electricity connectionsamp160And pricing must be regulated to bills depending upon usage just like gas water and electricityamp160The more you use the more you payquotAnd Scott A Mugno of Alabama wroteamp160quotReliable affordable lastmile fiberoptic broadband is a utility as important as electricity and water today Without it there is no growth or development for our children or communitiesamp160That large portions of rural America and inner cities don39t have access to such broadband is largely due to the large internet providersamp160Their recent efforts to prevent requirements for affordable highspeed broadband in the recent infrastructure bill demonstrate government39s failure to ensure this utility for all its citizensquotSo is broadband a utility that calls out for regulation or notIn a closely related side issue we should keep in mind the exceedinglyamp160rare compromise of a bipartisan group of outlier politicians who have joined together to label the internet as infrastructure amp8230 or the beginning of a major change in how to look at the business of supplying access to the internetAnd now for the critical question of who should pay for this quotutilityquot amp8230 the usage concept is interesting and it suggests strongly that the fringe users of the internet should pay their fair shareamp160So at what level should AlphabetGoogle Amazon Facebook Microsoft Netflix Twitter and all of those quotquot streamers actually payamp160Any suggestionsRandom Notes Should you have any answers or responses to these questions email me at maxmediavillagecom and I39ll track them and reply Jokes are welcome as wellClick the social buttons to share this story with colleagues and friendsThe opinions expressed here are the author39s views and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillagecomMyersBizNetamp160

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Should Broadband Be a "Utility?" … Or Is Broadband Already That?

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Paul S. Maxwell

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