> I would love to see a world where the companies that own last-mile infrastructure are required to lease the lines to any ISP the end consumer wants; this would create a competitive market and mostly eliminate the problem.
Devil's advocate, why would any company want to be the infrastructure-owning company then? Aren't they in the worst spot?
It's not a new problem, but the history of telecoms show exactly why it's a bad solution. Do you really want to go back to the days of AT&T controlling everything?
Do you want a local PUC deciding how fast your internet should and how much it should cost? Do you want them deciding that 5 dollars more a month isn't worth tripling the speed?
It works for power and water because the infrastructure doesn't turn over very fast.
If you had your way in the late 1900's we'd all be on ASDL right now.
The electricity and water systems, while definitely needing upkeep, don't need to prepare for a doubling of usage every few years.
Edit Plus, the electric company definitely does some kind of demand shaping: shutting off AC compressors on a rolling, as-needed basis. In water emergencies the water company will declare which days I can water the lawn or wash my car. "Utility" isn't synonymous with "totally dumb pipe."
The electricity and water systems don't benefit from their component costs being cut in half every few years. This isn't some situation where people just unreasonably expect better service for no reason, the technology gets better and cheaper.
Furthermore, Internet bandwidth is not a commodity like electricity or water. There's no supply to diminish. What the telecoms want to do is more like if suburban streets were toll roads, Amazon owned the toll roads, and Amazon wanted to add a "congestion" charge for trucks carrying non-Amazon packages.
Conversely, I wouldn't say there has been much innovation at all in water or electricity infrastructure over the last 50 years. The utilities in place are perfectly happy to collect their modest, but government-guaranteed profit.
Perhaps it still makes sense to turn the last mile into a utility, but best to go in with our eyes open about the looming downside. There's not a free lunch to be had here.
Devil's advocate, why would any company want to be the infrastructure-owning company then? Aren't they in the worst spot?