Cable monopolies hurt consumers and the nation

[Commentary] Choice and competitiveness are the casualties when big firms such as Time Warner and Comcast have no motive to upgrade speed or capacity. The filthy little secret of home and business Internet data services in the United States is that the vast majority of Americans receive them from their local monopoly cable provider, the two largest of which are the increasingly rapacious and indolent Comcast and Time Warner Cable.

"Cable has won; it's a monopoly now," Susan Crawford, telecommunications expert at New York's Cardozo School of Law said. "People are just waking up to that fact." More than 80% of new subscribers to high-speed Internet service are going with their local cable providers. It's not because they think those providers are just grand; it's because in most of the country there's no choice. Because local cable service is a monopoly almost everywhere, fiber companies such as Verizon and AT&T, which have the technology to bring you higher speeds, won't spend the money to compete.