Comcasting for Dollars

A company called "Comcast" wants to acquire, and merge with, one called "Time Warner Cable." [Photo source: Comcast.]

Why should you care? Because of this merger's impact on our nation in general, and on you and your children's online life in particular.

Executive Summary
America's Internet and cable access services are already in bad shape, and this proposed $45 billion merger will make them worse, not better. The provision of access to Internet and cable television networks ought to be, like the interstate highway system, a part of the basic, public infrastructure of this country -- as it is in countries with far better Internet service than what we have. Since America refuses to go down that path, a provider of Internet and cable access should at least be perceived and regulated as the common carrier public utility it is -- with a prohibition on common ownership of the content we want and the conduit through which it comes -- like the former AT&T network. But America has a reluctance to learn from the wisdom of other nations. That is why we have not joined the near-unanimous major nations that provide their citizens with universal single-payer healthcare. We are quite willing to pay more while getting less in order to avoid having to modify our ideology. So it is highly likely that, for the immediate future, we will continue to pay more and get less for our cable and Internet access as well.

The merger will only provide incentives for more mergers, provide the merged company with more monopoly power to raise rates while simultaneously requiring less investment in innovation and the kind of more, better and cheaper broadband service available to the citizens of other countries (thereby leaving us lagging even further behind our global competitors) -- while making Comcast the sole source for business' broadband access in 19 of our 20 largest metropolitan areas; create a presence in more congressional districts, thereby increasing its political power, along with even more money to spend on campaign contributions and lobbying. It is a bad deal for America, for Iowa families, for entrepreneurs and the creative community, and even -- as some of the analyses below point out -- for investors in these two companies.

For more on each of these topics, and more, click here.

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And if you'd like to join over 150,000 people -- on its way to 200,000 -- who are protesting this merger? Click here for information: http://www.credomobilize.com/petitions/help-me-stop-the-comcast-time-warner-merger-2