If you are paying close attention to discussions about broadband policy, you may have come across Fred Pilot's reminders that competition is not a cure-all for our Internet access woes across the United States. The blogger and author joins us for episode 196 of Community Broadband Bits. Fred Pilot's new book, Service Unavailable: America's Telecommunications Infrastructure Crisis, discusses some of the history behind our current challenges and proposes a solution centered around federal funding and cooperatives. We discuss the switch from telecommunications as a regulated utility, to which everyone was guaranteed access, to a system relying on competition, in which some people have many choices but others have no options. We also discuss the merits of a national solution vs encouraging more local approaches with federal financial assistance. Fred's blog is Eldo Telecom and you can follow him on Twitter. Read the transcript from this show here. We want your feedback and suggestions for the show - please e-mail us or leave a comment below. This show is 30 minutes long and can be played below on this page or via iTunes or via the tool of your choice using this feed. You can download this Mp3 file directly from here. Listen to other episodes here or view all episodes in our index. Thanks to Kathleen Martin for the music, licensed using Creative Commons. The song is "Player vs. Player." Community Broadband Bits Episode 196 - Fred Pilot, Author of Service Unavailable