12-01-2017, 02:30 PM
(11-22-2017, 02:29 PM)bfine32 Wrote: But part of me realizes that many cable companies are geographic monopolies and consumers often have no choice.
Bingo. It's a competition issue, and more directly one potentially of monopoly price gouging. I'm kind of shocked the AT&T acquisition of DirectTv was approved, but the competition and substitutes is viewed more broadly which is why the merger went thru.
But in many areas, satellite tv & internet is widely available. It generally costs a bit more. Cell service has competitive speeds, but price quite a bit higher (but likely coming down with 5G and additional spectrum being made available).
The other concerning play - which again could easily be rejected by the FCC and FTC - is the acquisition of CONTENT. This brings up the mirror image of favoring access/NN, in that some could choose simply to offer the content only on their services. It's a gray area, as currently every content provider has separate deals with every ondemand service (and, in some cases, no agreement could be reached).
--------------------------------------------------------
