The oceans are pretty big though. Adding more cables right now isn’t a heavily constrained space. So yeah you have some giants laying their own. However, I don’t think that more privately owned links is necessarily a sign of power concentration, rather a symptom of it perhaps. You have these giants leveraging economies of scale to gain an advantage, and it’s not necessarily something a non-giant couldn’t do themselves if they were motivated enough. Example, if Meta didn’t own and operate Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp (i.e. regulators force the split of their social media platforms) they could conceivably still lay these new cables.
We did, and then allowed them to consolidate again, under influence from lobbyists and biased economists.
The anti-trust legislation is still in force, but it needs participation from the Justice Department, which is systematically neglecting its duty.
It is not against the law to have a monopoly, but when you choose to have one you become subject to a body of law that monopolies are supposed to observe. But that body of law has been chipped away at in the courts, as the Public Interest is only fitfully represented.
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With absolutely no partisan bias whatsoever, I submit that rational people should find the concentration of power worrisome.
The oceans are pretty big though. Adding more cables right now isn’t a heavily constrained space. So yeah you have some giants laying their own. However, I don’t think that more privately owned links is necessarily a sign of power concentration, rather a symptom of it perhaps. You have these giants leveraging economies of scale to gain an advantage, and it’s not necessarily something a non-giant couldn’t do themselves if they were motivated enough. Example, if Meta didn’t own and operate Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp (i.e. regulators force the split of their social media platforms) they could conceivably still lay these new cables.
What's the difference between a .com oligopoly owning the cables versus a telecom oligopoly?
Vertical integration.
But break up the telecom oligopoly too.
We've at least tried to break up the telecom one before?
We did, and then allowed them to consolidate again, under influence from lobbyists and biased economists.
The anti-trust legislation is still in force, but it needs participation from the Justice Department, which is systematically neglecting its duty.
It is not against the law to have a monopoly, but when you choose to have one you become subject to a body of law that monopolies are supposed to observe. But that body of law has been chipped away at in the courts, as the Public Interest is only fitfully represented.
Possibly making Sherman[1] into a function that gets applied annually at the Fortune 500 level?
[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sherman_Antitrust_Act_of_189...