IMAGINE that for $33 a month you could buy Internet service twice as fast as what you get from Verizon or Comcast, bundled with digital high-definition television, unlimited long distance and international calling to 70 countries and wireless Internet connectivity for your laptop or smartphone throughout much of the country.

—Yochai Benkler: via NYT op-ed. He would go on to say, without a major policy shift to increase competition, broadband service in the United States will continue to lag far behind the rest of the developed world. But, lobbying from the monopolies is too strong even to begin exploring open access right now.

From the Berkman Center Broadband Report, an example of a competitive service in an open-access environment in France:

The best bundle currently available from Iliad’s “Free” service includes 100Mbps service to the home, digital TV with HD and the ability to create your own private television channel for others to watch on their TV sets, unlimited voice telephony throughout France and to 70 other countries, including the U.S., and secure nomadic Wi-Fi access wherever one’s laptop or Wi-Fi-enabled phone is within range of the Freebox of any other Free subscriber in the country (24% of the French market), for USD32.59 PPP a month.

The survey of literature on competitiveness, returns, and effects within open-systems would yield the following, singular observation:

the present unstated consensus in U.S. telecommunications policycircles that open access is a theory in disrepute is without foundation in evidence.