It’s refreshing (and validating) to have a prestigious news organization like the United Kingdom-based Economist, write an article that supports the position I (and many others) have taken that ISP bandwidth caps and authentication are nothing but control measures to protect Cable TV revenues.
This past week, the Economist published this article about what’s happening in the United States as it pertains to the explosion in internet video viewing and the threat this poses to cable companies and started off like this:
“IN THE land of free enterprise and the home of discount shopping, there can sometimes be an appalling lack of competition. High-speed access to the internet is one. Cable television is another. The reason is that in America cable-television companies, which provide a lot of the high-speed access, do not want their customers to cancel their contracts and watch television over the internet instead. (SB: my emphasis).”
The article goes on to discuss what’s happening, how the cable companies sell bundles — sometimes with 100 channels or more — though the average consumer watches only 15. Now that we have an unprecedented ability to watch online TV, movies, video podcasts, and rent from Netflix or iTunes, many of us are asking a fundamental question: why do we want to continue to pay for what we don’t need or want?
The author does, in fact, cut to the chase and get to the essence of what’s happening (which I explained at length in previous posts):
“Consumers’ new-found freedom to choose has struck fear into the hearts of the cable companies. They have been trying to slow internet television’s steady march into the living room by rolling out DOCSIS 3 at a snail’s pace and then stinging customers for its services. Another favourite trick has been to cap the amount of data that can be downloaded, or to charge extortionately by the megabyte.”
PUT DOWN THAT REMOTE FOR JUST A MOMENT and connect NOW with the Minnesota Ultra High Speed Task Force members and let them know why and how this issue matters to you.
The Task Force needs to hear from you. They’ll be making their recommendations to the State Legislature this Fall and key portions of those recommendations are being formulated as you read this post. If they don’t hear from you and soon, they’ll never know an open, unfettered internet matters as much as we online participants do.
Minnesota Ultra High Speed Task Force Member Emails (full contact info here). Task Force chair, Rick King, has asked that all email correspondence be directed to Diane Wells (email) as she’s compiling them and releasing a daily digest to the members.