You know that U.S. Telecoms are corrupt and greedy as hell when you read stories like this one, via Ars. A small town in Minnesota approached the regional Telecom, TDS, to ask if they planned to lay fiber optic in the town. TDS said no, they had no plans in the near future.

This is to a great degree because they know that they don’t have to, and without spending tons of money on infrastructure, they can charge just as much for low-speed “broadband” networks that already exist. This suits them: rake in as much cash as possible without laying out money for new systems. In the 90’s, the Telecoms got permission to hike rates substantially by removing the old “rate of return” regulations; in return, they promised (non-binding) to spend the extra money on upgrading infrastructure so that 86 million US households would have 45 Mbps broadband or better. Guess what? They took the money and didn’t upgrade. Surprise! Unless I missed something, and most of the U.S. gets 50 Mbps F/O for $50 a month nowadays. Nope. Instead, the Telecoms raised your rates to the tune of $200 billion and more, and did very little to earn it.

That’s why Japan, which had a successful “e-Japan” policy, got true nationwide broadband–30 Mbps and higher– five years ago. In Japan, the average connection speed is 61Mbps, and Japanese pay about 27 cents per megabit. In the U.S., the average is 4.8 Mbps, and they pay $3.33 per megabit–12 times more for 1/12th the speed.

Unhappy with the Telecom’s refusal to keep their promises, the small town of Monticello, Minnesota forged ahead on their own, voting for the installation of a municipal F/O network. Well, we can’t have that. TDS actually sued the town–how dare they build their own network and not let the Telecoms fleece them! When it was clear that TDS could not stop the town, they set out to lay a competing F/O network at warp speed–showing clearly that they were perfectly capable of installing FTTH anywhere they damned well pleased, not ten years from now, but immediately–but just didn’t want to make the investment when they knew they had a captive audience. Monticello only got action when they set to make their own network, threatening to put TDS out of business in that town. TDS’s explanation: they didn’t know that people wanted broadband. Bullshit: they knew full well.

It makes very clear what I think everyone has known: the Telecoms have long been able to deliver high-speed fiber connections–they just don’t want to because they can make more money by letting the U.S. wallow in high-cost, low-speed backwaters. Which is why my dad pays more now than I do for an ISP connection, while receiving speeds that were a joke in Japan just five years ago.

Want high-speed Internet? Do what Monticello did: get your city to make their own network. The Telecoms will get off their asses and deliver only when they discover that their customers are no longer apathetic chumps.