Why Is American Internet So Slow?

Antiquated phone networks and corporate monopolies do not produce fast Internet.

By Rick Paulas
https://psmag.com/why-is-american-internet-so-slow-98f4eeadb371#.q9v3rd42k

AT&T, Comcast, Verizon, and Time Warner have a “natural monopoly” since they’ve simply been at it the longest. While the Telecommunications Act of 1996 attempted to incentivize competition to upset these established businesses, it didn’t take into account the near impossibility of doing so. As Howard Zinn wrote in A People’s History of the United States, the Telecommunications Act of 1996 simply “enabled the handful of corporations dominating the airwaves to expand their power further.”

Chattanooga has somewhat famously installed its own. Santa Monica also has its own fiber network. The reason these communities have been successful is because they don’t look at these networks as a luxury, but as a mode of self sustainability.

The 19th century’s ghost towns exist because the gold ran out. The 21st century’s ghost towns might materialize because the Internet never showed up.

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more on Internet access in this IMS blog

https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=internet+access