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Home internet is one of the most infuriating services in the United States. But as the pandemic shows how bad things have gotten, we’re starting to see some changes.

Maybe.

Decades of failed policy shows how far the US has to go to achieve better and fairer online access for all.

Over the past two decades, government regulators have written and rewrote rules with one simple purpose: Americans living in apartments can choose their internet provider, even if it’s a homeowner’s preferred provider. In most cases, this provider pays for the privilege.

The idea is that if tenants have options for internet service providers—as Americans usually do at cell phone companies or convenience stores—they are more likely to find the product they want at a fair price.

But all this time, apartment owners and big internet service companies found ways around government rules. They effectively blocked startup internet companies from many buildings. Regulators know this, but not much has changed.

last month FCC he took out his pens again. People living in flats and housing estates on paper will have more knowledge and power No matter what the host wants, choosing their own internet provider. We’ll see.

It is a microcosm of government that the government cannot achieve in practice what it demands in principle. America’s filthy internet.

The USA has an illusion of free market competition in internet service. There’s a lot of government regulation, but it’s not particularly effective. This double dysfunction is holding the US economy back, wasting taxpayer and consumer money, and keeping many Americans out of modern life.

Result: Americans pay more for worse internet service more than our peers in most wealthy countries. About 15 million americans or morelacks modern internet access; the system is so complicated we don’t know exactly how many. Most others can’t afford it.

There is a sense of urgency to solve these problems. The pandemic has awakened more US policymakers and the public to the necessity of internet service and how the current system is failing us. Fresh congress fund and changes in technology has activation New approaches to connecting Americans.

But that momentum will be wasted if government officials fail to enforce competition rules, including roughly one-third of apartment-dwelling Americans.

FCC says apartment rules are “a cautionary tale” Greg Guice, director of government affairs for the public interest group Public Knowledge. “If you’re going to say you’ve fixed a problem, you need to make sure you’ve solved it.”

In apartments, internet service providers need building owners’ permission to install their equipment to connect tenants. In theory, homeowners should have a good excuse to say no. Most of the time they don’t.

Genna Veksler, co-founder of small internet provider Brooklyn FiberHe said he received regular calls from potential customers in apartments, but was turned down by property managers, who made a series of objections.

While Veksler says Brooklyn Fiber can wire homes with relatively less fuss, they’re worried about construction dust or disruption from installing a new company’s internet lines. Building officials also say tenants don’t need multiple internet options.

Veksler doesn’t bother raising the FCC’s rules to homeowners because Brooklyn Fiber doesn’t have the money to handle it American style, hiring a lawyer. “This is not a war we can win; So this is not a fight worth fighting,” he said.

Veksler, Guice and others who want better and fairer internet service in the USA still cautiously optimistic That the FCC can give apartment residents more options if the agency breaks its rules.

after San Francisco made a law City attorneys tightening rules on tenants’ internet preferences in 2016, possible penalties he said if the apartment owners had not obeyed Ernesto Sahin, senior legislative advisor at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a digital rights group. Penalties included lawsuits that could be brought by the city, service providers, or tenants. it it seemed to work.

After two years of urgency and action, people hardened by years of internet dysfunction in the US are torn between hope and pessimism.

““A big change like this doesn’t come fast and it’s never easy,” said Virginia Lam Abrams, who oversees government affairs for the internet provider. Starry. However, he said, “we have the opportunity to really fix things that have been broken for so long.”

Before you go …

• Government lawyers have questions for TikTok: Several state attorneys launched an investigation Cecilia Kang explores whether TikTok contributes to mental and physical harm for teens and young adults. Instagram faced similar questions.

  Related: US surgeon general asked big tech companies to send information about the extent and sources of misinformation About Covid-19.

• The dramatic story of a Ukrainian pilot Who shot down several Russian warplanes was widely shared on the Internet, including by the Ukrainian government. But it may be a myth, and it was a video montage, an image made from a combat flight simulator. My colleagues Stuart A. Thompson and Davey Alba, confusion of truth and myth in the information war against Russia.

  Related: Farhad Manjoo of The New York Times Opinion writes: “Our fear of Russian dominance over digital discourse can always be a little too swollen”

• Amazon still isn’t great at physical stores: Amazon will close more than 50 retail stores, including bookstores and tchotchke outposts called Amazon 4-Star. My Colleague Karen Weise Writer Company filings show sales are declining, despite Amazon opening more supermarkets and other stores.

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Check it out swinging snipe. Yes, it should look like that. (Thanks to my colleague Dodai Stewart for posting this tweet.)

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