The Free Market Lie: Why Switzerland Has 25 Gbit Internet and America Doesn't

Re:The Free Market Lie: Why Switzerland Has 25 Gbit Internet... by carefree-bob on Monday April 06, 2026 @12:26AM (#47656994)

woah, I didn't know this. How many states have laws banning municipal fiber?

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Re:The Free Market Lie: Why Switzerland Has 25 Gbit Internet... by jdeibele on Monday April 06, 2026 @02:15AM (#47657517)

https://broadbandnow.com/report/municipal-broadband-roadbloc...

It’s from 2023 but says 16 to 19 states.

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Re:The Free Market Lie: Why Switzerland Has 25 Gbit Internet... by m_mueller on Monday April 06, 2026 @05:49AM (#47658795)

this is insane. I guess it's that easy for telcos to lobby the legislators for keeping up their rents?

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Re:The Free Market Lie: Why Switzerland Has 25 Gbit Internet... by JumpCrisscross on Monday April 06, 2026 @07:46AM (#47659674)

> guess it's that easy for telcos to lobby the legislators

16 states having restrictions while two go explicitly pro-municipal broadband doesn’t seem like a lobbyist’s panacea. Skimming the list of states with restrictions, they look like red states trying to bridle their blue cities. Partisanship seems the more-parsimonious explanation.

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Re:The Free Market Lie: Why Switzerland Has 25 Gbit Internet... by m_mueller on Monday April 06, 2026 @12:40PM (#47663284)

~100 million consumers (assuming average sized states are impacted) being essentially defrauded by a cartel of telcos - doesn't really matter what you wanna call it but I'd say it's a pretty major deal.

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Re:The Free Market Lie: Why Switzerland Has 25 Gbit Internet... by JumpCrisscross on Monday April 06, 2026 @06:03PM (#47667885)

> it's a pretty major deal

Never disagreed.

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Re:The Free Market Lie: Why Switzerland Has 25 Gbit Internet... by shimman on Monday April 06, 2026 @12:28PM (#47663082)

You're assuming they are giving these people hundreds of thousands of dollars, they aren't. These are mostly state politicians that make between $50k-80k who rarely get a campaign donation above $10k. These corporations absolutely give them the bare minimum (seriously talking between $500 to $4k maybe), it's only federal Senators that typically make the big bucks since they have the ability to single handedly gum up the system to prevent legislation.

But yeah, it's not only easy it's very cheap. This is why you need a workers party so workers can effectively collaborate together to either primary the politician or convince them otherwise.

Oh and you can't just do this once either, it takes an entire life's worth of work and it never ends.

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Re:The Free Market Lie: Why Switzerland Has 25 Gbit Internet... by m_mueller on Monday April 06, 2026 @12:36PM (#47663219)

I'd say first of all you need to put a lid on it, call this kind of thing again what it is (bribery), and make it illegal. Secondly, if someone wants a public office: pay them well (they'll still have the revolving door afterwards anyways), but all their finances will need to be published on a quarterly basis. It's not exactly rocket science, this kind of thing is implemented in many jurisdictions.

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Re:The Free Market Lie: Why Switzerland Has 25 Gbit Internet... by silisili on Tuesday April 07, 2026 @12:36AM (#47670810)

Tennessee is listed, but it's only really restricting power companies from expanding outside their electric reach.

It doesn't really damper anything, Tennessee has among the highest rural FTTH coverage in the US. There are tiny companies you've never heard of running 8gbps symmetric to houses on acreage!

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