[btmorex]

You should actually be rooting for telco competition. Look at areas where Verizon FIOS and Comcast compete head-to-head. Not only is the broadband excellent quality, it's price competitive with almost any other European/East Asian nation.

There's no doubt in my mind that the U.S. can have excellent broadband at a reasonable price. Unfortunately, in most areas we only have the choice between pricy, midgrade cable internet and cheap, slow DSL.

[sabat]

I'm rooting for all competition; I don't have any reason to believe that telcos would be any less corrupt than cable companies. But if we had a choice between multiple wireless providers, multiple cable providers, and multiple telcos, we might stand a chance at a fair deal.

The Cable/Telco-FIOS spar is likely to evolve into a wink-and-nod conspiracy where companies all settle on similar high prices and compete only in the marketing arena (see SMS as one easy example).