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Comment by driverdan | Hacker News Reader

It's not because of AT&T, it's because of government regulation.

Riiiiight.

I'm sure it has nothing to do with a complete lack of competition (cf. how in communities where Google Fiber showed up, the incumbents were suddenly quite capable of getting gigabit fiber to households, and for a price that was competitive with Google Fiber, and a fraction of the price they were charging for inferior service before Google Fiber's arrival).

I'm sure it also has nothing to do with the billions upon billions of subsidies AT&T and Verizon have received to build out broadband and make it available everywhere, which they pocketed and then didn't deliver on. Cf. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/the-book-of-broken-promis_b_5...

If you really want to blame it on government, do it the right way: the government has not been keeping AT&T and the other giant telcos accountable for effectively stealing all those subsidies, and it has not enforced competition at the local level. Regulatory capture, and all that.

Lack of competition is due to regulatory capture. Local governments often disallow competition in the ISP space.

And the regulations are captured by the companies who much prefer no competition. So we’re screwed by BOTH the corporations and the government.

We need new laws, and smaller companies.

> We need new laws

We need fewer laws.

AT&T offers fiber on the other side of the road. How is this government regulation?

Just as a thought, that might be pretty cheap to have extended to your house.

In Germany, Telekom (the formerly-government-owned provider and largest player afaik) offers to dig fiber for you for a "nice" price. But if it's literally about 5 meters it might actually be worth it.

If CA laws weren't so restrictive there would be competition. Without competition there is nothing compelling AT&T to offer better service. The barrier to entry for ISPs is so high that it's essentially impossible in many areas.

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