Captive Audience
non-fiction work by Susan P. Crawford
Captive Audience: The Telecom Industry and Monopoly Power in the New Gilded Age is an American non-fiction book by the legal expert Susan P. Crawford.
Summary
It describes high-speed internet access in the United States as essential (like electricity) but currently too slow and too expensive. To enable widespread quality of life and to ensure national competitiveness "most Americans should have access to reasonably priced 1-Gb symmetric fiber-to-the-home networks." Crawford explains why the United States should revise national policy to increase competition in a market currently dominated by Comcast, Verizon Communications, AT&T, and Time Warner Cable. Meanwhile, towns and cities should consider setting up local networks after the example of pioneers such as Lafayette, Louisiana's LUSFiber and Chattanooga, Tennessee's EPB.
See also
Institute for Local Self-Reliance
Comcast NBC merger
Criticism of Comcast
Federal Communications Commission
National Broadband Plan (United States)
Municipal broadband
Cities with Municipal Wireless Networks
References
Further reading
Cecilia Kang (March 2, 2013). "Controversial activist takes on the telecom industry". Washington Post.
Brian X. Chen (February 19, 2013). "One on One: Susan P. Crawford, Author of 'Captive Audience'". New York Times.
Sam Gustin (January 9, 2013).
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