I am pleased that critics are reading my latest one-pager on why broadband competition will flourish but not surprised that some of the critics are unmoved. One of my critics at Democraticmedia.org, Jeff Chester, blogs that I have drunk too much cable-telco kool-aid.
Jeff, I have known you for many years and its fair to say that you and I approach the same set of facts from very different perspectives and world views. You have been a big proponent of heavy government restrictions on business in media and communications and a big skeptic on the value of competition policy. I have been a big proponent of the opposite. We have shared common ground in the past and could in the future over opposition to genuine monopoly power that is unaffected by competition; however that is not the broadband world we live in today.
It appears to me that your views do not change no matter what the facts or evidence are. You sound as fearful of the cable and telco companies now as you were when they were government regulated monoploies over a decade ago. But so much has changed Jeff so much competition has developed where none existed before. Can you show me where you have acknowledged any competitive progress or benefits in your public writings or filings?
Competition policy has brought Americans a lot of good and benefit that heavy regulation failed to deliver. On cable, most every American now has choice in video programming and ~28 million Americans have chosen an alternative to the cable company. The Telcos are losing several million voice customers a year to competitors and voice prices have plummeted. Cable Modem-DSL competition has led to extremely fast adoption of broadband and ever increasing speeds. Wireless growth has been extraordinary and wireless broadband options and adoption may be increasing even faster.
With all due respect, Jeff your analysis and views appear to suffer from one-sidedness, where you point to all the bad things about broadband, but stubbornly ignore the many obvious good things that have been happening for years for America. Life and policy are not perfect. Competition is certainly not perfect, but it is massively superior to the alternative of heavy handed regulation and blocking the freedom to associate -- within the boundaries of anti-trust laws.
The Internet has exploded the media diversity you have so long advocated. Take a breath, smell the roses. What you want is already here, open you eyes and enjoy it.
The facts are clear if you only open your mind and eyes -- broadband companies are competing and competition is increasing!
