Susan Crawford: "Captive Audience" (Diane Rehm show on high speed internet)

[philnotfil]

Diane Rehm interview Susan Crawford about why the US has lost its competitive advantage in high speed internet.

dianerehmshow.org

A couple of snippets (interviews don't lend themselves to four paragraph rules ):

Well, if you've got a commodity that everybody needs as an input into their businesses, like, take railroads for example, and it costs a lot to initially build that network so it's hard for someone else to enter and you can cooperate with your colleagues who are also providing that service and divide up markets, you've got a monopoly business that just produces gravy.

CRAWFORD
11:16:37
Nobody is pressuring Comcast to install fiber which is the world-class kind of network that many other developed nations have. So that's what Hong Kong and Seoul and Japan, that's what they're all doing.
REHM
11:16:50
Who could pressure them?
CRAWFORD
11:16:53
Well, right now, only Verizon and Verizon is trying to please Wall Street. These are all very rational decisions. These are private companies. They want to keep their stock price up too and they're spinning off enormous dividends so the essential public problem is when the private incentives of these giant companies don't line up with our public need to make sure that everybody has high-speed internet access at a reasonable cost, we're in trouble.

On why Google fiber isn't going to more places:

Well, the incumbents in this area have made it either impossible or very difficult in 19 states for cities to do this for themselves. They found ways to get the state legislature to pass laws making it really impossible for cities. So Google can only offer this kind of service where the city has the power to do it.

[Dreamliner]

So, that's what Dianne looks like. She sounds like she's about 115.

[ursidman]

Originally Posted by Dreamliner

So, that's what Dianne looks like. She sounds like she's about 115.

That's what I thought too. I heard her explain one day that she has a condition that caused her vocal cords to stiffen which makes her sound so old.

[Dreamliner]

Originally Posted by ursidman

That's what I thought too. I heard her explain one day that she has a condition that caused her vocal cords to stiffen which makes her sound so old.

Ah, that would explain it.

[philnotfil]

Originally Posted by ursidman

That's what I thought too. I heard her explain one day that she has a condition that caused her vocal cords to stiffen which makes her sound so old.

She had throat surgery last year or the year before, her voice was really bad right before it. About the same as always after it.

[corpgator]

What always gets me is how slowly she speaks. The show moves much more briskly when she's out for whatever reason and someone is guest hosting for the day.

But back to the OP, we're so far behind in internet services, that short of a government mandated infrastructure, we may never catch up.