[ale] Comcast Caps Data at 250G/Month

[Jeff Lightner]

Not quite.

They were considered a monopoly because you had NO other options for
service.  That isn't the case with either telecom or cable these days.
You can get TV service via satellite (and in some markets via telecom).
You can get high speed internet via telecom.

Also the monopoly that was Ma Bell wasn't just restricted to their phone
service.  Back then they owned Bell Labs (later became Lucent - made
wires and equipment), Western Electric (made the only phones you were
allowed to use) and the directory publishing service not to mention
local phone companies and the long distance service meaning even if you
never made a long distance call you had to pay them.   The break up got
rid of this vertical integration by making AT&T a long distance company
only, breaking up the local companies into RBOCs (Regional Bell
Operating Companies), allowing anyone to sell phones to be used with
these RBOCs and AT&T LD, and the RBOCs to buy equipment and cabling from
any manufacturer and not just Bell Labs.

What is disturbing to me is that all that work has mostly been undone.
We now have mainly two big phone companies - AT&T and Verizon that have
most of the long distance and local phone service between them.   If you
don't think it is easy for two large companies to engage in monopolistic
price setting I'd invite you to look at some of the litigation against
Coke and Pepsi in regards to anti-competitive practices against Royal
Crown in various markets.

You might think you have more choice due to the other "providers" of DSL
but all these have to run over AT&T phone lines and still have issues
with AT&T and Verizon that were supposed to have prevented the RBOCs
from getting into long distance in he first place.   CLECs never truly
were due to these issues - otherwise you'd have more choice in home
phone service as well.

-----Original Message-----
From: ale-bounces at ale.org [mailto:ale-bounces at ale.org] On Behalf Of
Geoffrey
Sent: Monday, September 08, 2008 8:26 AM
To: ale at ale.org
Subject: Re: [ale] Comcast Caps Data at 250G/Month

Jim Popovitch wrote:
> On Sun, Sep 7, 2008 at 01:17, aaron <aaron at pd.org> wrote:
>> So who, besides Commiecast, can utilize the coax wires that we
>> allow the company to run through our public rights of way??
> 
> Who paid for the coax and the trenching?

You can make the same argument for the old Ma' Bell and they split them 
up as a monopoly back in the 80s.

-- 
Until later, Geoffrey

Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little
temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.
  - Benjamin Franklin
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