<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8">
</head>
<body bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000">
<br>
<div class="moz-forward-container"><br>
<br>
-------- Forwarded Message --------
<table class="moz-email-headers-table" border="0" cellpadding="0"
cellspacing="0">
<tbody>
<tr>
<th align="RIGHT" nowrap="nowrap" valign="BASELINE">Subject:
</th>
<td>Here's What Happens When Internet Providers Have Zero
Competition</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th align="RIGHT" nowrap="nowrap" valign="BASELINE">Date: </th>
<td>Wed, 1 Apr 2015 10:46:24 -0700</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th align="RIGHT" nowrap="nowrap" valign="BASELINE">From: </th>
<td>Eric Thompson <a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:elt@pacbell.net"><elt@pacbell.net></a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th align="RIGHT" nowrap="nowrap" valign="BASELINE">To: </th>
<td>Eric Thompson <a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:ericthom@mac.com"><ericthom@mac.com></a></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<br>
<br>
<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8">
<div><span></span></div>
<div>
<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html;
charset=utf-8">
<div><base
href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/03/31/internet-providers-competition_n_6980292.html?ncid=txtlnkusaolp00000592">
<style id="article-content">
@media print {
.original-url {
display: none;
}
}
h1.title {
font: -apple-system-headline;
font-weight: normal;
text-align: start;
-webkit-hyphens: manual;
}
blockquote {
color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.5);
margin-left: 20px;
margin-right: 20px;
}
blockquote > *:first-child:before {
-webkit-margin-start: -6px;
content: open-quote;
}
blockquote > *:last-child:after {
content: close-quote;
}
/* FIXME: We should be able to remove this when WebKit's link color matches UIKit's (<rdar://problem/13650224>). */
.page a {
color: rgb(20, 111, 223);
}
#article .large-element {
max-width: 100%;
height: auto;
}
.page {
font: -apple-system-body;
text-align: start;
}
#article .leading-image, #article figure, #article .auxiliary {
font: -apple-system-short-subheadline;
}
h1 {
font: -apple-system-subheadline;
}
h2 {
font: -apple-system-footnote;
}
h3 {
font: -apple-system-caption1;
}
h4, h5, h6 {
font: -apple-system-caption2;
}
h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6 {
font-weight: bold;
}
hr {
background: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2);
height: 1px;
border: 0;
}
</style>
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css"
href="safari-resource:/WBSReaderSharedStyleSheet.css"
id="article-content-shared">
<title>Here's What Happens When Internet Providers Have Zero
Competition</title>
<div class="original-url">FYI Eric T. <br>
<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/03/31/internet-providers-competition_n_6980292.html?ncid=txtlnkusaolp00000592">http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/03/31/internet-providers-competition_n_6980292.html?ncid=txtlnkusaolp00000592</a><br>
<br>
</div>
<div id="article">
<!-- This node will contain a number of 'page' class divs. -->
<div class="page" style="font-size: 20px; line-height:
30px;">
<h1 class="title">Here's What Happens When Internet
Providers Have Zero Competition</h1>
<!-- Entry Text -->
<p>It’s basic economics: Competition drives down prices.</p>
<p>So it’s no surprise that <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://arstechnica.com/business/2015/03/atts-newest-fiber-customers-to-pay-40-more-than-google-fiber-users/"
target="_hplink">AT&T is charging way more for its
highest-speed Internet service</a> in Cupertino,
California, where it’s the only provider of superfast
gigabit speeds, than in cities where it has a
competitor.</p>
<p>AT&T’s pricing power in the small and expensive
enclave of Silicon Valley illustrates the state of
broadband in the U.S. Because of the huge infrastructure
costs of deploying a network, there is very little
competition -- nearly 75 percent of households in the
U.S. <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://apps.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DOC-329161A1.pdf"
target="_hplink">have one or no options for broadband
Internet</a>, according to the FCC. And as speeds go
up, competition goes down. </p>
<p>AT&T’s GigaPower Internet service, which <a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://about.att.com/story/uverse_with_gigapower_launches_in_cupertino.html"
target="_hplink">launched in Cupertino on Monday</a>,
will cost consumers $110 per month if they want the top
speed of up to 1,000 megabits (one gigabit) per second
for downloads. That’s $40 more per month than AT&T
charges in other cities where it offers the service,
like Austin and Kansas City, <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://arstechnica.com/business/2015/03/atts-newest-fiber-customers-to-pay-40-more-than-google-fiber-users/"
target="_hplink">Ars Technica’s Jon Brodkin reports</a>.</p>
<p>The difference is that in Austin and Kansas City, <a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/google-pressures-at-ts-broadband-prices-1427760612"
target="_hplink">AT&T competes with Google Fiber</a>,
the search giant’s own superfast Internet network. In
those places, both Google Fiber and AT&T offer
gigabit service starting at $70 per month.</p>
<p><em>AT&T GigaPower Pricing In Austin, Texas:</em> <br>
<img moz-do-not-send="true" alt="att austin"
src="http://i.huffpost.com/gen/2786738/thumbs/o-ATT-AUSTIN-570.jpg?6"></p>
<p><em>And in Cupertino, California:</em><br>
<img moz-do-not-send="true" alt="att cupertino"
src="http://i.huffpost.com/gen/2786740/thumbs/o-ATT-CUPERTINO-570.jpg?3"></p>
<p>AT&T's <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.att.com/esupport/article.jsp?sid=KB421828&cv=812"
target="_hplink">price is contingent upon giving the
company access</a> to your browsing information and
what you search for online, so AT&T can better
target ads to you -- you have to pay more if you opt
out.</p>
<p>The company declined to comment about the price
discrepancies in its GigaPower service. In a statement,
it said, “We’re excited to offer the fastest high-speed
Internet in Cupertino at a price that is competitive for
the market.”</p>
<p>Competition appears to have prompted AT&T to cut
prices before. Earlier this month, it dropped the price
of its GigaPower service in Raleigh and Durham, North
Carolina, <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/Thanks-Google-Fiber-ATT-Drops-Gigapower-Prices-in-Raleigh-133040"
target="_hplink">after Google said it was planning to
launch its network there</a>. </p>
<p>Cupertino, which is home to Apple, is <a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.businessinsider.com/most-expensive-zip-codes-in-silicon-valley-2015-1?utm_content=buffer31f4b&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer"
target="_hplink">among the most expensive places to
live in the U.S.</a>, so AT&T can get away with
charging people a premium for the service. </p>
<p>"We'd love to see other companies come in and offer
competitive speeds to what AT&T now offers," said
Rick Kitson, a spokesperson for city of Cupertino.
"Everyone needs the speed and the access that's now
certainly possible but still isn't universally
available."</p>
<center>
<p><img moz-do-not-send="true" alt="broadband"
src="http://i.huffpost.com/gen/2787006/thumbs/o-BROADBAND-570.jpg?6"><br>
<em>This chart <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://apps.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DOC-329161A1.pdf"
target="_hplink">from the FCC</a> shows how few
Internet options most people have.</em></p>
</center>
<p>Karl Bode, a technology writer and the editor of the
industry site <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.dslreports.com/" target="_hplink">DSLReports</a>,
said that inexpensive access to broadband in the U.S. is
a much bigger issue than the current deployment of
gigabit networks, which he says is “overhyped.” After
all, gigabit service is <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://www.techdirt.com/blog/netneutrality/articles/20141217/10125929466/commerce-department-study-reveals-theres-almost-no-competition-if-you-want-real-broadband.shtml"
target="_hplink">only available to 3 percent of the
entire U.S. population</a>.</p>
<p>“So while gigabit is great if you can get it, a far
more important conversation to be having is in regards
to price -- and how the general lack of competition in
the majority of markets has people paying an arm and a
leg not just for slow service, but some of the worst
customer support in any industry,” Bode wrote in an
email. “There's still a pretty notable digital divide
and competitive shortfall, and deploying gigabit
services to select portions of a small number of cities
isn't doing much so far to seriously impact this.”</p>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div><br>
<br>
<br>
</div>
</div>
<br>
</div>
<br>
</body>
</html>