I don't believe either of those points. I will grant you that the LECs are near monopolies in some rural areas, but these are few and far between. Yes, a LEC may control the last mile but I can usually get circuits from a lot of carriers. A company I work for has over 50 locations mostly in rural areas and we do not have much problem getting Sprint and CenturyLink access circuits to them regardless of location. In fact, we have never found a location in the US that I can't get both of those carrier to deliver to us. In a lot of areas there is also a cable provider available. Residential users have somewhat more limited options but you do always have the option of deciding where to live. Most of us in this group would consider the broadband options available to them before they move.
Being a content provider has very little to do with market forces. Comcast is, of course, a major content provider and access provider but if they limit their customer's access to Netflix (which they have been accused of) the customers will still react to that. The content providing access provider has to know that no matter how good their content is, they are not the only source and their customers will react to that. I think the service providers are sophisticated enough to know that and they will walk the fine line of keeping their customer happy while trying to promote their own content. It is like saying a Ford dealer does not want to change the oil on your Chevy, sure they would like for you to have bought from them but they will take what they can get. Steven Naslund >>>Steve, the key piece you're missing here is that the major broadband >>>providers are both >>>- near-monopolies in their access areas >>>- content providers >>>Not a situation where market forces can work all that well. >>>Miles Fidelman
