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Susan P. Crawford

Captive Audience: The Telecom Industry and Monopoly Power in the New Gilded Age Audio CD – Unabridged, September 2, 2014

by Susan P. Crawford J. D. (Author), Carol Hendrickson (Reader)

222 ratings

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Ten years ago, the United States stood at the forefront of the Internet revolution. With some of the fastest speeds and lowest prices in the world for high-speed Internet access, the nation was poised to be the global leader in the new knowledge-based economy. Today that global competitive advantage has all but vanished because of a series of government decisions and resulting monopolies that have allowed dozens of countries, including Japan and South Korea, to pass us in both speed and price of broadband. This steady slide backward not only deprives consumers of vital services needed in a competitive employment and business market—it also threatens the economic future of America.

This important audiobook by leading telecommunications policy expert Susan Crawford explores why Americans are now paying much more but getting much less when it comes to high-speed Internet access. Using the 2011 merger between Comcast and NBC Universal as a lens, Crawford examines how we have created the biggest monopoly since the breakup of Standard Oil a century ago. In the clearest terms, this audiobook explores how telecommunications monopolies have affected the daily lives of consumers and America's global economic standing.

Language

English
Publisher

Brilliance Audio
Publication date

September 2, 2014
Dimensions

5.5 x 5.5 x 0.25 inches
ISBN-10

1491528745
ISBN-13

978-1491528747
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Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Susan Crawford is the Visiting Stanton Professor of the First Amendment at Harvard Kennedy School, a visiting professor at Harvard Law School, and a professor at Cardozo Law School, Yeshiva University. She served as Special Assistant to the President for Science, Technology, and Innovation Policy (2009) and on the ICANN board of directors, and is a contributor to Bloomberg View and Wired.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Brilliance Audio; Unabridged edition (September 2, 2014)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1491528745
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1491528747
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 9.6 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.5 x 5.5 x 0.25 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #3,777,762 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #317 in Antitrust Law (Books)
- #734 in Public Administration
- #1,926 in Media & Communications Industry (Books)

Customer Reviews:
222 ratings

Customer reviews

5 star		54%
4 star		14%
3 star		11%
2 star		12%
1 star		8%

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Top reviews from the United States

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David Collado

Our Future Depends On This

Reviewed in the United States on January 12, 2013

Verified Purchase

Although I was generally aware of the issues covered in the book, Crawford does an excellent job of painting a thorough picture of the extent to which our federal and state regulators are failing America's future by capitulating to Big Telco. With all of the other issues our nation is currently facing, it's easy to bump national broadband Internet access down the list. But we do so at the peril of our nation's innovation economy which increasingly relies on world-class broadband access. Data shows we're already behind most other developed nations in terms of paying the highest prices for the lowest access speeds, which is pretty sad for a nation which led the creation of the Internet in the first place. Our position will continue to slip as long as the FCC fails to regulate broadband Internet access as a common-carrier utility and state legislatures impede municipal fiber network deployment.

340 people found this helpful

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Stephen P. Percoco

Very Good History and Review of Telecommunications Industry

Reviewed in the United States on April 17, 2019

Verified Purchase

Susan Crawford provides an excellent description of the development of the telecommunications sector and the major players and events that have shaped it. She is critical of the high speed internet services now offered in the U.S., saying that they are not as good as those in other countries (e.g. Korea, Japan, parts of Europe) and blames the oligopoly power of the service providers (Comcast, AT&T and Verizon). She believes that the industry needs to be regulated. While much of her criticism is valid, it is clearly biased in favor of the user of the services and does not give much credence to the rights (or rather the obligations) of the providers to maximize their investment returns. Her arguments need to be revisited in light of coming technological advances (e.g. 5G). She also does not seem to consider the possibility of cooperation between the service providers and the communities that they serve. (For example, municipalities that want the highest quality high speed internet services could pay the service providers to upgrade their networks in exchange for a guaranteed (low) monthly user fee for a specified period of time.) Despite my disagreements with some of her conclusions, Prof. Crawford does provide a very good history and review of the telecommunications industry and raises many issues that are worth considering (and maybe acting upon). I learned a lot from reading her book.

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Big fan of Big Fans

Understanding the "Net Neutrality" battle and why it really matters

Reviewed in the United States on June 12, 2014

Verified Purchase

"Net neutrality" is in the news these days as activists denounce some mysterious threat to the Internet, society's main conduit of information. Since information is the currency of democracy, this sounds important. But the Internet is complex and arcane--how can a concerned citizen form an educated opinion?

Captive Audience, by Dr. Susan Crawford, is a well researched and thoughtful look at oligopoly and monopoly in the telecom industry, and of their harms to American society. Comcast and Time Warner dominate the wired Internet, while Verizon and AT&T dominate the wireless Internet. Comcast and Time Warner (which will soon merge) divide the country rather than compete, and the same is true of Verizon and AT&T.

The wired Internet is fast and the wireless Internet is mobile. Since each has an advantage the other cannot match, the two services complement rather than compete. The result is that abuses by the big Internet service providers are unconstrained by competition.

Monopoly may be tolerable if it is regulated as a public utility. However, as Crawford explains, our current Internet is very weakly regulated. Thanks to a recent court decision, NO rules prevent ISPs from blocking lawful content or from favoring traffic that they have a financial interest in. The FCC is trying to remedy these defects (the "net neutrality" battle), but its effort looks feeble.

Because of our policies, America lags behind most industrialized countries in Internet performance, access, and cost. Our copper wire telephone network degenerates, our ISPs abandon their obligations to serve everyone, our competitiveness suffers, and large parts of the country lack fast Internet access.

If corporations with a poor public image (General Motors, BP, Monsanto, Time Warner) decide that suppressing criticism is easier than changing their ways, they may convince the ISPs to help them. If activists on many issues (global warming, abortion, gun control, illegal immigration, same-sex marriage, the War on Drugs, Obamacare, spying by the NSA, political use of the IRS) decide to suppress their opponents' views, they may convince the ISPs to help them. No enforceable rule prevents any of this.

Captive Audience covers many subjects: the Internet as a natural monopoly, Comcast's use of sports programming to dominate the Internet, the difficulty in blocking vertical mergers, anti-competitive practices by Comcast and other ISPs, Comcast's lobbying methods, the revolving door between regulators and the regulated, and laws in 19 states that prevent municipalities from creating their own broadband networks. This book is an excellent place to begin for Americans wishing to understand this issue that is so important to our democracy.

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