Thanks to the cable/telco duopoly, Americans are lagging behind with adopting broadband since it's just too darned expensive. While the Japanese and Koreans can enjoy a bundle of telephone, cable, and high-speed Internet (often at speeds well beyond what we can get here) for about $35 a month, it's hard to find just an Internet connection for that in this country. Over 1/3 of US households still have no choice but dial-up for Internet access.
Alarmingly, companies like AT&T have been lobbying to get municipal WiFi systems outlawed. I guess they figure that if they can't compete on price or service, it's time to roll out the high-priced lawyers. This should come as little surprise as AT&T was one of the chief proponents of a tiered Internet, effectively ending "Net Neutrality".
Since the telcos and cablecos are doing such a terrible job of rolling out access and affordably pricing their services, can there be any other option but municipal broadband projects like UTOPIA? Wishful thinking isn't going to get them in line with thier 1996 Telecommunications Act promises.
(See full article.)
