When one compares broadband in the US and the rest of the developed world, we discover that that in the US we have higher prices, and lower performance, much like our healthcare system.

What is common in both is that markets are controlled largely by monopolistic,^* and largely unregulated, for profit private companies.

Well, now it looks like the FCC will be ordering the large players to lease lines to their competitors:

AT&T Inc. and Verizon Communications Inc. would be forced to lease fast Internet lines to rivals providing Web services to small businesses under a proposal being weighed by U.S. regulators.

The biggest U.S. phone companies have told the Federal Communications Commission that opening access to lines they laid would curb their incentive to continue spending billions of dollars expanding high-speed service. The FCC’s decision “will significantly affect investment in fiber-based networks,” line- maker Corning Inc. said in a filing with the agency.

The idea, proposed to the FCC by computer-services company Cbeyond Inc., has support from the Small Business Administration, which said it could spur job creation. The plan would add to competition for business clients, who are also being courted by cable providers led by Comcast Corp. and Time Warner Cable Inc.

Players like AT&T and Verizon make much of their profits from doing business under either a monopoly of a duopoly environment, and this is a start to creating meaningful competition.

^*Full disclosure: I have Verizon^® Fios^™., so I receive my connectivity from one of these, “monopolistic, and largely unregulated, for profit private companies.”