QotD
"If we had a true open access and a vibrant competitive
environment, it would fix lots of problems. The whole network
neutrality issue, that whole fight is not an issue if you had 30
service providers to choose from, because if one was goofing with
your voice over IP, everybody would
leave.
"Similarly, if there were 30 service
providers to choose from in every market, I think everyone would
take better care of consumers' privacy, too.
"In the
US, we made a shift in 2002 and decided that we were going to
pick winners in each industry, and we're going to have the
incumbent cable company compete with the incumbent phone company,
and maybe the power company will get into the business, and then
there'll be some wireless, and maybe satellite. But
realistically, wireless is expensive and slow. Satellite is
latent. Broadband over powerlines never really worked. So you end
up with two to choose from, and if you only have two, one looks
at the other, and they go, that guy is this fast, lets be that
fast. That guy is $25 let's be $20.
"[...] So in a
duopoly environment you get a number of effects that aren't
beneficial to consumers."
-- Dane Jasper, CEO of
Sonic.net, interviewed by Andy Greenberg of Forbes,
"CEO Of Internet Provider Sonic.net: We Delete User Logs After
Two Weeks. Your Internet Provider Should, Too." (published
2012-06-22)
