Interesting article from the Harvard Law ... / 2011-11-04

Interesting article from the Harvard Law and Policy Review volume 5-2: The Communications Crisis in America - Susan P. Crawford (pdf) about the current state of high-speed data transport to American consumers.

One quote:

The industry is poised to reap the central reward for geographical clustering, upgrades, and de facto monopoly presence - unconstrained pricing ability and an unmatched high-speed communications service in a marketplace where consumers are agitating for higherspeed communications and the cable companies are making north of 90% margins on their data services.

Found via Telecom Digest.

A very interesting read, making a valid point about the move towards IP based services and at the same time very little competition in high-speed last-mile access in the US with interesting connections between access providers and entertainment producers / distributors.

The Dutch market is somewhat better for as far as I know: most places with cable will have competition for 10 mbit downstream and faster Internet access, and regulators in this country are keeping a close eye on things.