Why The Internet Sucks

[Swerd]

And I agree, the amount of power telco lobby has over politicians is insane.

Compared to the power the pharmaceutical industry and health insurance corporations have over politicians, the telecom lobby is small potatoes. All of them base their efforts on the model that the tobacco industry established.

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

Compared to the power the pharmaceutical industry and health insurance corporations have over politicians, the telecom lobby is small potatoes. All of them base their efforts on the model that the tobacco industry established.

Well, it's not that small - they literally write laws which local politicians letter for letter implement (or try to) - anything to prevent additional competition, mostly in the form of muni ISPs:
https://broadbandnow.com/report/municipal-broadband-roadblocks/
Killing Title 2, Net neutrality and privacy protections - all of the things which were aimed to help consumers and nothing else.