maikii
join:2012-08-08
Pacific Palisades, CA | And competition is being killed, as companies are allowed to swallow one another. What ever happened to antitrust in this country?
I am glad they stopped ATT from buying up T-Mobile, but in general there is far too little regulation these days, with politicians reeking in contributions from the telcos.
Wasn't the breakup of ATT in the 1980s, breaking off the baby bells, supposed to add competition? Why did they allow ATT and one other company, Verizon, to buy those baby bells back up. At one time they introduced competition in local landline service. Why was that stopped?
So now there are two monopolies (ATT and VZ) that control all landline and DSL nationwide. They are not in competition with each other at all. (not discussing wireless here, but landline and DSL).
There used to be many television cable companies, but now they seem to have been all bought up by Comcast and Time-Warner--similar to the ATT-VZ monoploy. They provide the only competition for internet service to the telcos. If Vz is now allowed to partner with the telcos, ATT will of course do the same,. and no competition at all!
Where are the regulators in all this?
And yes, sad how they are allowed to bust unions as well. Without unions, this country would have a MUCH smaller middle class.
said by paulcarlucci:Prices only come down with competition. Reducing back-end costs will only bring down prices if reducing those costs are a competitive advantage.
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| said by maikii:Wasn't the breakup of ATT in the 1980s, breaking off the baby bells, supposed to add competition? Why did they allow ATT and one other company, Verizon, to buy those baby bells back up. At one time they introduced competition in local landline service. Why was that stopped?
Under the terms of the 1984 breakup, AT&T was prohibited from purchasing its former subsidiaries.
But AT&T did not buy the Baby Bells. It was actually one of the Baby Bells, SBC, that bought its former parent and adopted the better-known brand name. Similarly, Verizon was also a Baby Bell.
Competition in local phone service was not stopped. For example, Sonic out in the Bay Area is doing exactly what the 1996 Act envisioned CLECs to do. AT&T does not help them, but nor do they hinder them. They give them the access that they are required to do, and no more.
The main problem is that the coax plant is not subject to open-access rules. Once VOIP allowed the cable company to offer triple plays, it was game over for the telephone plant. The cable companies have already rendered the landline divisions of the big telecoms marginally-profitable. How do you expect a small CLEC to compete against the much better-funded cable company? |
