The latest missive from the folks at Free Press has crossed the line:

When challenged, the wireless carriers actually compare their industry to another: soda.

This is from the Times editorial on July 22:

Phone companies point out that exclusivity agreements are commonplace in other industries. For example, they say, it is not often that one finds a restaurant serving Coke and Pepsi.

Sorry, but cell phones aren’t soda. Unlike carbonated sugar water, cell phone choice, network access and the mobile Web are increasingly essential…

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CEI’s own Wayne Crews is quoted in the Boston Globe this morning, explaining why real competition — not government-mandated ‘openness’ — is the best way to promote consumer choice.

Wayne takes issue with Ben Scott of Free Press, who describes cellular data access as “a classical net neutrality issue.’’ Apparently placing legal burdens on any new web platform is Mr. Scott’s strategy for encouraging the spread of mobile internet access…

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With every passing month, the United States falls further behind the global leaders in broadband Internet access thanks to a combination of market and policy failures…Our broadband problem is becoming a crisis.
- Free Press, 2006

Much ink has been spilled over the claim that the US is “falling behind” in broadband. Most of that rhetoric centers around a single statistic: the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) ranks the US 15th in the world in broadband connections per capita. The…

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