Susan Crawford, Former Special Assistant to President Obama on Science, Technology, and Innovation Policy, urges that the internet is too important to be left to the private market.
– for more than 77% of Americans, their only choice for a high capacity connection is their local cable monopoly.
– Residents of Stockholm pay about 30 bucks a month for gigabit access. That’s something we can’t even imagine in the United States. Residents of Seoul and Japan and Hong Kong other Northern European countries have access to internet service 100 times faster than that in the U.S.
– Twenty states have passed laws saying, “Cities don’t have the choice to [build their own public internet options].” These laws have been rammed through by incumbents happy with the way things are. One thing that needs to happen is we need to block these state laws so that cities can make these decision for themselves. FCC Chairman Wheeler has announced that this would be a good direction to investigate.
