this post was submitted on 24 Oct 2023
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Tired Of Being Ripped Off By Monopolies, Cleveland Launches Ambitious Plan To Provide Citywide Dirt Cheap Broadband (www.techdirt.com)
submitted 1 year ago by L4s@lemmy.world to c/technology@lemmy.world
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Tired Of Being Ripped Off By Monopolies, Cleveland Launches Ambitious Plan To Provide Citywide Dirt Cheap Broadband::Cleveland has spent years being dubbed the "worst connected city in the U.S." thanks to expensive, patchy, and slow broadband. Why Cleveland broadband sucks so badly isn't really a mystery: consolidated monopoly/duopoly power has resulted in a broken market where local giants like AT&T and Charter don't have to compete on price, speeds, availability, customer…

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[–] BearOfaTime@lemm.ee 17 points 1 year ago (1 children)

There's nothing free market about how cable companies operate.

[–] hperrin@lemmy.world 28 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Sure there is. They are natural monopolies that form in the free market. The free market isn’t a good thing. It’s what gives us things like child labor and corporate owned towns.

[–] BearOfaTime@lemm.ee 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Lol, so all the regulation protecting them is "natural"?

[–] hperrin@lemmy.world 17 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

No, those come after they gain a monopoly. Those regulations weren’t there when the “free market” turned them into a monopoly.

There are certain products and services that form a monopoly naturally when they operate in a free (or even relatively free) market. Those are referred to as natural monopolies, ISPs are among them.