The Man Pushing Faster Internet Access in U.S.
For telecommunications companies, making the investment in broadband access is not without risk. The costs for building high-speed networks are enormous, whether through wires on the ground or through wireless networks. Moreover, the companies must market the concept to consumers who are already paying monthly fees for home telephone, cellphone and cable television service and may not want to pay yet more for high-speed access.
The gripe in this article is ostensibly about the high cost of building broadband networks, but a careful reading — heck, even a cursory one — shows that the industry’s problem is in building a business model, not a network. They’ve got dark fiber (unused fiber-optic capacity) under the streets of most cities. Cable TV passes 95% of the homes in the US. The network is there, but they haven’t figured out how to make people pay what they want to charge for it.
There’s no mention of the costs associated with these technologies from the consumer end. An additional $50 a month for faster email and stock quote access is a hard sell: make it $9.99 and see what happens.