I have noticed the same thing happen here. We have two ways to get landline one is Qwest and the other Cox. But their monthly rates are about $1 different. Is this what I should expect from a free market. I was expecting a lot more... reduced prices. This looks like Phone-ISP cartel.
About 8 months back I came to know about the VOIP company Ooma. Tried that...I was very weary about it, but the company hasnt folded yet. Bye bye to qwest and cox.

Stimulating the sheer force of the market place in contrast to the European modle? Blair Levin says "companies like apple or like google are looking at very different business models that we think will provide a very interesting competition. Much in the way that say Skype created competition for international phone calling." I find it interesting that that example used to support the "sheer force of the market" in comparing the U.S. to Europe was Skype. The major problem with this of course being that wile Skype was created in one of the top IT innovating countries that country is Denmark and of course Denmark is in Europe. So if I understand his point the way to show how the European model dosn't work is to use and innovation that American companies are looking at from Europe.

I have three suppliers (Comcast, RCN & Verizon FIOS) competing to provide me with cable, phone & internet but the price still keeps climbing and the offers from one service are often hard to compare to the others. Compitition may slow rising prices, but it won't bring them down as an existing customer has a lot of initeria to overcome in changing from one service to another.

The Broadband and wireless Broadband story will be the tipping point in my view.

The music industry has shown us that, once a technology enjoyed by a huge population -encounters opposition from a corporate structure. The corporate structure will always have to change. The same will apply to Government structures.

Two things are universally true, one is that the majority of our communications systems are monopolies, that manipulate prices and restrict new technologies through their lobbying efforts.

The second is that through compression technology a lot of which is invented at U.S universities, it has become relatively inexpensive to provide broadband to a lot of developed countries except here.

No, the problem is the so called "free market" which is free for the market only and in no way free for us the slobs who have bought into this crap that everything should be left to the free market which supposedly opens up competition. Well that's only another part of the scam; we are told it brings competition but it doesn't bring competition everyone over charges roughly the very same price!!! Is that competition? I don't think so. This is more crap and this, one day we'll all see it, is what holds us back behind the rest of the world. There you go, South Korea is today where we will be in 2020, lol sadly.

Okay, Think I got the point Brooke - plagiarism was OK back then due to lack of celebrity. Media was not constantly pounding the public with names and by lines.

It would be interesting to frame your broadcast in historical perspective because in Homer's time it wasn't just like today. Shakespeare didn't have a blackberries, at least not ones that did messaging.
Ralph

How come this show features two lobbyists and no one who is actually in the business of providing broadband? I'm the founder of the first WISP, or wireless ISP, and have been rolling out high speed broadband for more than 18 years. I understand the industry can can describe the good and bad things about the Plan; the lobbyists will only say what their clients want them to say.