"The telecos got the rules changed while we weren't watching," says Johnston in the accompanying interview. Basically, the phone and cable companies lobbied Washington to change laws and regulations to favor their business over their customers.

Over the course of the last 20 years, nearly $500 billion has been collected by the telecom companies to (allegedly) bring America into the 21st century with an "Information Superhighway," says Johnston. That works out ot $3,000 per household to have access to high-speed Internet.

But America did not get what it was promised and much of the country will never get fiber optic lines, Johnston tells The Daily Ticker. And even in cities that do have the faster service, the service is not always accessible.

"The companies essentially have a business model that is antithetical to economic growth," he says. "Profits go up if they can provide slow Internet at super high prices."

The relationship between phone and cable providers has essentially become a cartel, says Johnston, who cites the relationship between Verizon and Comcast.

In terms of phone service, what America really got was a duopoly, says Johnston, noting that AT&T and Verizon control 60% of phone service in America.

Hacker News thread about this: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4565133

Life is so much more enjoyable if one cancels personal access to those services, I have found.

But then how do you get your content?

Free and public wifi. Sometimes prepaid 3G

That's good for some cities, but in most places there isn't enough free and public wifi yet.

Where's google fiber? Apple has $100bn in the bank. I guess google is incentivized to do something but apple is not.

Now Apple has $150 billion in the bank, and Google Fiber is in three cities.

Sometimes progress happens very slowly.

70% of all internet traffic travels over Verizon controlled fiber..... it's even worse than you think :-\

Or better. Google just has to make enough to buy Verizon and set it free.