When you hear a politician, a lobbying group, or a corporate executive yammering on about leaving the free market alone, don’t fall for it. Many businesses today are built around finding that industry -- or that particular anomaly within an industry -- where market forces simply don't apply. Then, they exploit the heck out of it for big profits. Late fees on credit cards, for example -- who shops around for those? Or hotel safe fees that get automatically tacked onto your bill. Call this the "un-free market" at work.
Broadband Internet access has long existed in this un-free market. For a long time, many U.S. consumers had only one Internet access provider, the very definition of an un-free market. Now, most people have two options -- an improvement, but duopolies rarely behave like free markets.
The Federal Communications Commission released the results of a year-long, scientific study of 13 U.S. broadband providers, focused on whether firms like AT&T, Verizon, Qwest, Frontier, and others live up to their marketing materials when delivering high-speed Internet service. For the first time, the firms are being held to their promises, and consumers can find out if they are getting what they are paying for.
This comes after new net neutrality laws pass in California.
AT&T’s CEO John Stankey said that he expects the pay-TV industry to soon hit a level of little or no growth. He predicts that it will plateau once the number of pay-TV subscribers falls somewhere between 55 and 60 million users.
PCMag released its Fastest Mobile Networks report and there are plenty of interesting insights to be found, including ones about 5G.
