 oliphant5Got Identity?Premium
join:2003-05-24
Corona, CA
| reply to pyro_527
Re: Typical Telco market manipulation I think we agree on many things. But I approach it this way. Should telcos be forced to deploy? No, but they shouldn't then be permitted to sue a muni (like CenturyTel did) when they do deploy in their stead. Do I think there would be bundling requirements for unrelated services? No, it's anti-competitive and it abuses their market position in one industry (ISP) to affect another (POTS). This is no different that what Microsoft got busted for. To me, voice and data are two completely separate services. It's not like voice-mail and voice where there is an obvious requirement to have voice service before you can get caller ID or voice-mail from them. I'm also of the mind that the way to level the playing field isn't to kill off the clecs, but force cable competitors to do the same, open their lines to content competition like Time Warner does. Both Comcast and Time Warner do it in select markets and if they want to continue getting franchise rights, municipalities should force them to open their infrastructure to content competition. I also think the cable bundling is bull crap. You should have to pay $15 more for one service when you don't want another? No way. Comcast is a C.I.P. You pay the $15 penalty if you want HSI and no CATV, but there is no such penalty if you want CATV but not HSI. That to me is crap. It's not about saving money by getting more services since it obviously doesn't work in both directions. It's about Comcast abusing their market position in HSI to compete against satellite with their often substandard and more often overpriced CATV services.
So long as telcos take money from the government and are granted these monopoly rights and easements, then they should have to follow the rules which include those which curb anti-competitive behavior like forcing someone to buy an unrelated service (local toll service) in order to get a completely different service (ADSL).
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-- Munis Killed the Telco Star -- Powered by Barry McKockenner Racing in association with Jack Mikkokov Motorsports
[text was edited by author 2003-10-29 11:56:45] |
