The Mess on Our 'Information Superhighway'

[unhappycamper]

http://www.opednews.com/articles/The-Mess-on-Our-Informati-by-Sam-Pizzigati-Comcast_Internet_Internet-Access_Wifi-140224-850.html

The Mess on Our 'Information Superhighway'
By Sam Pizzigati
OpEdNews Op Eds 2/24/2014 at 13:33:02

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Americans currently pay much more for Internet than just about everybody else in the developed world. Other countries have established fast, cheap Internet access as a given of modern life. In the United States, we surf the Net at Model-T speeds -- and tens of millions of Americans still have no broadband access at all.

This pitiful situation may soon get worse. Two corporate giants that share significant responsibility for our current digital state of affairs, Comcast and Time Warner, are now seeking regulatory approval for a $45 billion merger that would leave Comcast controlling the bulk of the nation's broadband access.

In 19 of the nation's 20 largest metro areas, the "only choice for a high-capacity wired connection will be Comcast," points out Susan Crawford, the author of last year's widely acclaimed Captive Audience: The Telecom Industry and Monopoly Power in the New Gilded Age.

So how would thinking "superhighway" help us out of this mess? America's only actual "superhighway" -- our Interstate road network -- demonstrates quite neatly the wonders we can realize once we start thinking about basic infrastructure as a public good, not a source of grand private fortune.