Submitted via IRC for AndyTheAbsurd
New York State and the nation's second biggest cable provider (Charter Spectrum) aren't getting along particularly well. Early last year, Charter Spectrum was sued by New York State for selling broadband speeds the company knew it couldn't deliver. According to the original complaint (pdf), Charter routinely misled consumers, refused to seriously upgrade its networks, and manipulated a system the FCC used to determine whether the company was delivering advertised broadband speeds to the company's subscribers (it wasn't). Charter has tried to use the FCC's net neutrality repeal to claim that states can't hold it accountable for terrible service, but that hasn't been going particularly well.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 28 2018, @02:25PM
"t's also why, in many places, the physical infrastructure of the internet—particularly the "last mile" running into residential areas and connecting homes—is owned either publicly, or by a heavily regulated utility"
Putting "owned publicly" and "heavily regulated utility" in the same sentence is a hedge. I don't know of any cases where the former is true in the U.S. Perhaps in some Vermont village somewhere. But certainly not in the majority of the states. and "heavily regulated" is totally subjective.IOW, your using two sixteenth truths to imply a whole truth. Nope, it doesn't work that way.
The market can be fractured to create competition in a variety of ways. For example "dig once" regulations open up fiber markets to competition, and reduce costs for ALL carriers at the same time. With just a modicum of ISO standardization, it is practical to have competing telecoms. The states don't compel standardization because high market entry expense favors established players.