Corporate tie binds US to a slow Internet

[Commentary] If Dwight Eisenhower had General Motors and George W. Bush had Halliburton, Barack Obama arguably has Comcast. US presidents are often linked to one or two corporations that donate a lot of money to them and then benefit from their actions.

Comcast, which is America’s largest cable television and internet provider and is a near monopoly in most of its largest cities, is no exception. The company’s meteoric rise in the past decade parallels the relative decline of internet service in the US. The Federal Communications Commission has been a good friend to Comcast and Time Warner Cable, the two largest cable providers that dominate US broadband. In contrast to the spread of electricity and telephones, where the US was far ahead of the rest of the world, Washington has abjured the same regulatory promotion for the internet. Through brilliantly effective lobbying, US cable companies have escaped the universal access and affordability clauses that were imposed on telecoms and electricity companies in earlier eras. Will Washington continue to tolerate America’s internet mediocrity (which afflicts both businesses and consumers)? Or will Mr Obama belatedly decide that it merits the kind of zealous priority his 20th-century predecessors brought to the critical technologies of their day?