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Comcast's Cohen: What Broadband Competition Problem?

Last week FCC boss Tom Wheeler stated plainly and cleanly that the United States broadband market isn't competitive, and that many people still unfortunately live in a duopoly market -- if they're lucky. While that sounds like an obvious observation, it's a big step for an FCC that has historically been unwilling to even state whether telecom markets are competitive one way or the other.

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Needless to say, incumbent ISPs, who like the lack of competition for obvious reasons, have a bone to pick with Wheeler's assessment. Top Comcast lobbyist David Cohen, concerned the comments would negatively impact the company's merger's chances, penned a missive disputing not only that the broadband industry is uncompetitive -- but that you can even measure it.

"Broadband is not a static market, capable of analysis at a single point in time," insists Cohen. "Rather, it is a dynamic market driven by investment, innovation, and product differentiation. In such a dynamic market, it would be a mistake to ignore the technical advances that are becoming available in the marketplace today and that continue to roll out."

In other words -- the broadband market is just so complicated and ever-shifting you can't actually measure levels of competition. Cohen singles out advancements in VDSL technologies as one such example, though he omits to note that Comcast's market power is growing as AT&T and Verizon back away from many markets leaving the cable operator with less competition than ever before.

The lack of fixed-line competitors leading to high prices and historically-awful customer service is deftly skirted over by Cohen, who would instead like readers to note that Comcast has "increased broadband speeds 13 times in the last 12 years," and "now provide our residential customers with speeds up to 505 Mbps." Cohen previously proclaimed that the United States was the global leader in broadband despite being mediocre in most meaningful broadband statistics (from Akamai and the FCC to the OECD and OOkla's Net Index).

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buzz_4_20
join:2003-09-20
Dover, NH
(Software) Sophos UTM Home Edition
Ruckus R310

2 recommendations

buzz_4_20

Member

HAHA I mean... no really you're serious

What competition...

For residential wired broadband I have a total of 1 option.
There is no LTE at my location and satellite is a joke (for anything a normal human would consider broadband)

So tell me about all the competition that I have.