Now we’re moving to a time of deep communications...

“Now we’re moving to a time of deep communications inequality. “Digital divide” doesn’t capture this situation. It’s much worse than that. We are creating digital deserts in America. We already deregulated high-speed Internet access, hoping that competition would protect Americans. Because the cable industry had a cheaper upgrade path, we’ve ended up with their second-best set of lines dominating the markets in which they operate. The phone companies, seeing how expensive it would be to upgrade their networks to fiber, are fleeing their copper wires and focusing entirely on wireless access–leaving the wired field almost entirely to essentially unregulated cable companies. That’s where these bills are coming from. Rather than requiring an upgrade to fiber, state legislatures are releasing the phone companies (and particularly AT&T, in whose territory most of these statutes are being passed) from obligations to serve all customers at reasonable rates. What they really want to avoid is any risk of a requirement to build new high-speed Internet access service in what they consider to be high-cost areas or to provide service to all customers at the same price. Their argument: We’re subject to competition from cable operators who don’t have any of these obligations, and we need a regulatory level playing field.”

Fiber Is the Key to U.S. Telecom Diet | Wired Business | Wired.com