The Looming Cable Monopoly, by Susan P. Crawford, 12/16/2010, vo. 29 Yale Law & Policy Review
“On March 9, 2010, the city of Alexandria, Virginia received a letter from Verizon. The letter, signed by Verizons Virginia president, Robert Woltz, said that Verizon would not be installing FiOS services in Alexandria. The mayor of Alexandria, William Euille, was disheartened: The city council had already awarded Verizon a contract to install fiber service and had spent hundreds of thousands of dollars negotiating a cable franchise agreement with the company. Verizon, for its part, declared that it was suspending FiOS franchise expansion around the country. Just one week later, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) rolled out its National Broadband Plan. The Plan, which was based on the assumption that broadband is a foundation for economic growth, job creation, global competitiveness and a better way of life, and was said by the FCC to be lay[ing] out a bold roadmap to Americas future, made a host of detailed recommendations. These recommendations focused largely on making more spectrum available for wireless broadband use, and reforming the nations Universal Service Fund. The Plan did not discuss net neutrality or competition policy. There were likely good reasons for these omissions. The Commission wanted to be seen as setting forth a vision for the countrys broadband future and was trying to keep any discussion of the newly-contentious subject of net neutrality on a separate, dedicated track. Also, the Commission was not, as of March 2010, eager to address the market structure of high-speed Internet access services.”
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