This week 17 years ago, the W. Bush FCC opened proceedings that, three months later, would effectively end last-mile competition for providing Internet service over telephone lines. That decision is directly why our last-mile residential Internet infrastructure is so bad.

Clinton signed 1996 Telecom Act into law. One of the big things it did is mandate that incumbent telephone companies lease segments of their network to any company that wanted to provide competitive service. Theory being the incumbents got it "for cheap" so it was a public good.

As you might expect, the incumbents (ILECs) hated this. A lot. I remember trying to get Internet over DSL in 2000; GTE/Verizon would take *months* to deliver a clean circuit to my chosen ISP. Bell was a bit better, but not much.

But when it worked, it was GLORIOUS. At my crappy apartment on the edge of a suburb, I could choose from 25 different ISPs ranging from 1Mbps to 20Mbps in service...in 2001. 20Mbps is better service than a lot of Seattle can get today and I could get it for $60/mo 20 years ago.

But two flaws: 1) Cable companies were not included so they forged ahead with spending while the phone companies sat back, mad; 2) the head of the Bush FCC hated the open access rules as "socialism."

Microsoft actually ran a DSL pilot in 2002, providing nearly-free DSL service to all of Redmond and Kirkland. Verizon complained to the state Utilities Commission and got it stopped.

In 2003, the ILECs finally got what they wanted and the open-access rules were significantly rolled back. Those 20 ISPs I could access? Almost all went bankrupt within a year because building a physical access network is EXPENSIVE...and we already paid the phone cos to do it.

Now, only small pockets of wired Internet choice still exist. SonicNet in California, Earthlink in a few areas, and semi-rural ISPs who fight through the paperwork to buy a thousand circuits. The rest of us are limited to one phone co (slow) and one cable co (capped), at best.

"But Verizon deployed fiber!" Yes, they did, and they fought build-out requirements to do it. So the wealthy areas get fiber; the less-wealthy, 6Mbps spotty DSL. Same with CenturyLink. And the areas they didn't want got fobbed off to Frontier and Fairpoint.

"But those smaller, more nimble companies without those pesky pension and union burdens will step up!" I have bad news. https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2020/04/frontier-files-for-bankruptcy-says-its-broadband-service-wont-get-any-worse/

This is why municipal networks are so important. Not because they're profitable; specifically because they're *not* but they're needed. Just like sidewalks, libraries, sewer and water, schools, transit, and health care.

/that's all, send tweet