Technophobia: Data and the Market

In the previous article, I went over how net neutrality is imperative to modern media and communications. In this article, I will talk about the role of ISP\’s today, as well as their pros and cons in handling the internet as a medium.

Let\’s start with something local. Do you know who your ISP is? The majority of you probably have Verizon ADSL/dial-up or Time Warner Cable\’s Roadrunner service, and there\’s a reason for this: utility laws prevent cable companies from laying cable after cable in the same area for their services. This means that the land was partitioned into areas where a single cable company can offer their services. Our local cable provider is Time Warner Cable, and their internet services are offered as Southern California Roadrunner.  The biggest problem with this system is that it limits competition between cable companies, which drives up internet prices.

Today, though, many areas have high-speed alternatives to cable internet, such as fiber optic networks, like Verizon\’s FiOS service. Because Verizon is laying a fiber optic network which uses different cables for the sole purpose of providing internet access, the company does not have to bid against television cable companies such as Time Warner. This changes the game slightly because before FiOS, RR had the upper hand on internet connectivity because of its speed. Now that many households see FiOS as a worthy alternative, Time Warner has increased the speed of its cable service packages at the same prices.

Now that you know about your local Internet Service Providers, let\’s talk about the state of consumer internet pricing and features in the United States today.  The greatest benefit of high-speed service plans in the United States is the fact that providers do not limit the amount of data you can download and upload from your computer. Recently, some companies changed their data policies to limit data consumption, the biggest of these being Comcast and Time Warner in Texas. This signals a terrible trend for us, the consumers, because our utility laws will prevent us from switching to another cable company if Time Warner decides to limit data. Furthermore, because of the way the cable companies form local monopolies, it would be very easy for other companies to start limiting their data after they see that their customers have a limited amount of options, and are less likely to switch.

The only issue for us is that if Time warner were to begin to limit their data plan tomorrow, most homes in FV have very few alternatives to turn to. ADSL is far too slow for the tastes of most people, and FiOS is still not available in the majority of FV, although those of us that live in Huntington Beach may already be experiencing the joy of high speed fiber internet.

The only way to protest effectively would be to downgrade, as any reconciliation that includes limited data would cripple our internet capabilities. Thankfully, it is very unlikely that Time Warner will enforce a limited data plan on any of us before FiOS or similar alternatives roll through Fountain Valley. We can just hope that the state of internet in the city doesn\’t get worse.