By Cory Doctorow (GPG 0xBF3D9110957E5F4C) @doctorow.pluralistic.net · 07/04/2026These companies generally enjoy regional monopolies, which means they're less interested in making *profits* (money you get by mobilizing capital) than they are from extracting *rent* (money you get from sweating assets). 19/ 1121
By Cory Doctorow (GPG 0xBF3D9110957E5F4C) @doctorow.pluralistic.net · 07/04/2026In Frontier's 2020 bankruptcy, we got to look at its internal bookkeeping system, and learned that the company treated 1m customers who had no alternative carriers as special assets because it could charge them more for worse service and poor maintenance: pluralistic.net/2022/12/15/u... 20/pluralistic.netPluralistic: How cable monopolists tricked conservatives into shooting themselves in the face (15 Dec 2022) – Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow 1172
By Cory Doctorow (GPG 0xBF3D9110957E5F4C) @doctorow.pluralistic.net · 07/04/2026This means that US fiber networks tend to be *under*built (the opposite of Germany's overbuilt networks), meaning that even if you're buying "gigabit" fiber, you're probably sharing that one gig connection with your whole block or neighborhood. 21/ 2140
