Quote:
Originally Posted by WeFourSki
The reason I'd like to switch is a long story I'd rather not get into. It's too bad there's really no competition in this industry. Most communities have only one internet provider they've contracted with, which doesn't encourage aggressive pricing or customer service.
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The towns do not contract with an internet provider. There is a franchise for cable TV and that cable plant happens to support internet. The phone company is similar in that there is typically only one phone company in town and it happens to support internet. Internet is unregulated. Other vendors are welcome to come to town, but they need to either rent space on the telephone poles or deploy antennas for fixed wireless works. It is an open market but hard to compete with the incumbent vendors that invested in TV or phone and fell into the internet market. So far, its the sound of crickets. The cellular vendors aren't competitive because of data caps. There is a project in place at the Carroll County level to invite fiber companies to bid on deploying in places that aren't well served today, but that is years out if it happens at all. The incumbents aren't going to lose market share willingly. Maybe Musk's Starlink will be a viable alternative some day.