Cable's Social Contract on America and Other Cable Scandals: But Who's Counting?

[Commentary] The last presidential debate has concluded and it is now clear that no party is going to bring competition to broadband, Internet, or phone, much less cable service.

In our last few articles we discussed that America paid over $360 billion for fiber optic networks they will never receive from Verizon, AT&T and CenturyLink, and that there is no real 'Internet freedom' because there is no serious Internet and broadband competition. You have more choices for candy bars or diet beers than there are for Internet and broadband services. But AT&T and Verizon are not the only ones with skin the game. The cable networks are also closed to broadband and Internet competition as well, even though they, too, were able to charge customers for upgrades of the networks. Here's the smoking gun: By the end of 2012, based on an FCC Order known as the "Social Contract", cable customers were charged an additional $54 billion and counting; that's over $1000 per customer, for upgrades of the cable plant. And this is only part of the largesse the cable companies appear to be getting from customers. There's probably another $30-$40 billion that's been charged over the last decade for 'pass-throughs' and made-up fees that have been added to the cost of cable services.