The Preserving Monopoly in Telecom Act

The House just introducted a bill, the so-called Preserving Innovation in Telecom Act” (H.R. 2726), that will make it unlawful for communities to provide any “telecommunications service, information service or cable service." In other words, if you're a large corporation, you can create a virtual monopoly and overcharge customers for lousy service, but if you're a small community and decide to pool your resources together to create a cheaper and more efficient service, the corporations will sue you. The bill really shows the extent to which this country is now run by large corporations. Why should a community have to get permission from a corporation if it chooses to pool its resources together? And it's not as if U.S. corporations are doing a good job. My corporate-provided internet connection and cell phone services suck, cost a fortune, and require me to buy into one- or two-year plans. In my area, there's virtually no competition for either phone or internet. Our community could step in and provide much faster service for a fraction of the cost.

(Thanks go to Nick Lewis for pointing out this story.)