2026-07-03 | RAI | Category: Signals
Switzerland has 25 Gbit symmetrical fiber to residential homes. Dedicated. Not shared with your neighbors. Multiple competing ISPs. You can get 10 Gbit for pocket change.
The United States: one provider, shared P2MP gigabit that drops to 200 Mbit at 8 PM.
Germany: multiple companies digging the same streets to lay parallel fiber — billions in redundant concrete, all so Deutsche Telekom can keep its edge.
Three countries, three approaches to the same problem. USA: deregulated free market → territorial monopolies. Germany: over-regulated infrastructure competition → wasteful overbuild. Switzerland: heavily regulated infrastructure layer, free competitive service layer → 25 Gbit at low prices.
The answer isn’t “more regulation” or “less regulation.” It’s regulate the right layer and free the right layer.
The Natural Monopoly Pattern
Economists call certain industries “natural monopolies”: the cost of building the infrastructure is so high, and the cost of serving one more customer is so low, that competition at the infrastructure layer destroys value.
You wouldn’t want three water companies digging up your street to lay three sets of pipes. You’d have triple the cost, triple the disruption, and you’d still only use one of them. The rational solution: build the infrastructure once as a shared, neutral asset, and let companies compete on the service above it.
Switzerland did this with fiber. Every home gets a dedicated 4-strand fiber line (Point-to-Point, not shared). The fiber terminates in a neutral, open hub. Any ISP — from giant Swisscom to tiny local provider — gets equal access. Competition happens at the service layer: price, speed, support, features.
The US did the opposite. No regulation on infrastructure → Comcast owns one territory, Spectrum another, AT&T a third. It’s marketed as “competition” but it’s a cartel. Your fiber terminates in their building — a competitor can’t even reach you without digging up the same streets. And because it’s built cheap (P2MP, shared with 31 neighbors), your “gigabit” isn’t.
Germany did the worst of both worlds. Over-regulated everything EXCEPT the right thing. Multiple companies dig parallel trenches (billions in waste), but Deutsche Telekom uses regulation to block duct sharing by competitors. “Infrastructure competition” sounds market-friendly — in practice it means paying for the same hole three times.
The Pattern Is Fractal
This isn’t just about fiber. The natural monopoly pattern repeats across every domain:
Biology: SpudCell — 36 known enzymes = shared infrastructure. Cell designs compete on top.
Hardware: Oomwoo — public Bill of Materials = shared infrastructure. Builds compete.
Mathematics: Bessis — framework/definitions = shared infrastructure. Theorems compete.
Software: Brandon — decisions = shared infrastructure. Code competes.
Internet: Switzerland — shared fiber = infrastructure. ISPs compete.
The winning move in every domain: socialize the natural monopoly layer, compete on the layer above.
The losing move: pretend the monopoly layer is a free market (US — cartels) OR regulate the wrong part of it (Germany — overbuild waste).
Platform Independence Isn’t a Preference. It’s a Structural Requirement.
This is why platform independence matters. Cloud platforms, app stores, AI APIs, social networks — they’re not natural monopolies the way water pipes are. But they’ve been made into de facto monopolies through network effects, regulatory capture, and the simple fact that your data and your identity terminate in their building, not yours.
When your fiber terminates in Comcast’s building, you can’t switch ISPs without digging a new trench. When your identity terminates in Facebook’s database, you can’t leave without losing your social graph. When your AI terminates in OpenAI’s API, you can’t run local without giving up capability.
The Swiss answer: separate the layers. Open the monopoly layer. Compete on top.
For the internet: shared protocols (TCP/IP, HTTP, SMTP) = the open infrastructure layer. Websites and services compete on top. This is why the internet worked for 30 years before five corporations started walling off the infrastructure.
For AI: local models = the open infrastructure layer. Fine-tuning, interfaces, use cases compete on top. This is what “Right to Local Intelligence” is actually about — not just “I want to run models at home,” but “I want the AI infrastructure layer to remain open so competition can happen above it.”
For social: Nostr relays, ActivityPub servers = the open infrastructure layer. Clients, communities, algorithms compete on top.
For identity: self-sovereign keys = the open infrastructure layer. Applications, reputation systems, verification compete on top.
The Swiss Lesson
Switzerland didn’t become the world’s fastest internet by being “more free market” or “more regulated.” They became the fastest by being right about which layer to regulate.
Regulate the natural monopoly (physical fiber).
Free the competitive layer (ISP services).
The same lesson applies to every digital monopoly forming right now. Don’t argue about whether we need “more regulation” or “less regulation.” Argue about which layer needs which treatment.
If the AI infrastructure layer (foundation models, training compute, API access) becomes a natural monopoly — and with $5 trillion being poured into it, that’s the bet — then the only free market left is above it. And that free market only exists if the infrastructure layer remains open and neutral.
Right now, we’re building the digital equivalent of letting Comcast own every fiber line and every point of presence, then calling it “competition” because you can choose between Comcast’s $80 plan and Comcast’s $120 plan.
The Swiss have 25 Gbit because they separated the pipe from the water.
We’ll have local intelligence when we separate the model from the gatekeeper.
Source: Stefan Schüller, “The Free Market Lie: Why Switzerland Has 25 Gbit Internet and America Doesn’t” (stefan.schueller.net, 361pts on HN)
Connects: SpudCell, Oomwoo, Bessis, Brandon, Right to Local Intelligence, Platform Independence arc