Many ISPs charge monthly rates, however, so there is no difference in cost to the network owner.

For the network owners, though, South Dakota's surprise was a drama they could have done without.

NBC's foreign bureaus are stocked with personnel, remnants of fatter days before new network owners decreed that news divisions needed to pay for themselves.

In this way, governments are able to create a competitive environment where the network owner does not determine which services consumers can receive.

For example, network owners want to protect their networks from being damaged.

"Nobody has to divest anything, and the duopolies are not threatened," said a lawyer who works for a network owner, speaking on condition of not being identified.

A lot of people don't want this to happen (the network owners for one.)

In the current market, the News Corporation is the only network owner with major sports properties that has written down investments in sports like football.

The provision the House approved today would allow any one network owner to reach up to 35 percent of the nation's households.

The common, but expensive, technique is for the network owner to issue known, trusted, unchangeable hardware to users.