[JumpCrisscross]

> Congress has only halfheartedly moved away from this system because cable and telecom are the largest political donor groups

The benefit telcos provide Congress are in letting them target employment and benefits. There are few other industries where a Congressperson can reliably create X jobs and headline benefits for their district, specifically and tangibly. That, much more than campaign contributions, explains their clout.

(People tend to vastly over-estimate the value of campaign contributions. They're lifeblood to challengers. But for incumbents, they largely have value in not going to challengers than as a direct benefit.)

[lotsofpulp]

What employment? It takes the same number of people to operate wired infrastructure regardless of who owns it. No cable company or telco company has moved jobs or retained jobs in an area as a bargaining chip.

[JumpCrisscross]

> What employment?

Building out new capacity as well as upgrading and maintaining existing capacity involves hiring and buying locally. By practical requirement. Often, too, by contractual obligation.

[lotsofpulp]

The incumbents are not building out new capacity or upgrading, which is why the whole conversation is happening. They're going to maintain regardless of what the politician does.

[rayiner]

> The incumbents are not building out new capacity or upgrading, which is why the whole conversation is happening.

Your assertion is false. https://www.vox.com/2018/12/12/18134899/internet-broafband-f... ("Finally some good news: The internet is getting faster, especially fixed broadband internet. Broadband download speeds in the U.S. rose 35.8 percent and upload speeds are up 22 percent from last year, according to internet speed-test company Ookla in its latest U.S. broadband report... As of October, the U.S. ranked seventh in the world in broadband.").

Where I live, you can get Comcast's "gigabit" service, which is over provisioned to 1.45 gbps (if you've got a cable modem with a 2.5 gbps port): https://www.reddit.com/r/Comcast/comments/kx1t4o/gigabit_pla...

[lotsofpulp]

I won't be able to take those claims seriously until Comcast (and other cable internet providers) start advertising upload bandwidth.

Look at these landing pages for supposed gigabit internet from coaxial internet providers:

https://www.xfinity.com/gig https://www.optimum.com/internet/fiber https://www.cox.com/residential/internet/gigabit.html

Not a single mention of upload bandwidth anywhere.

Now look at fiber providers:

https://www.centurylink.com/home/fiber/ https://www.verizon.com/home/fios-fastest-internet/ http://chattanoogagig.com

[JumpCrisscross]

> incumbents are not building out new capacity or upgrading, which is why the whole conversation is happening

Look up your local telco monopoly and look at the number of field offices, warehouses, et cetera they have. It's substantial. That's because telecom is tough. It's also because it wins contracts.