Can you beat Verizon?

[Beestie]

Originally Posted by tw

...Then get Fios installed. ...Verizon and Comcast are creating a monopoly. They got the 1996 Communication Act revised so that nobody else can use their wires.

I get bundled service from Cox (TV/Internet/Landline) and am very happy with it. And Cox is wiring the area for digital so they seem to be staying one step ahead of Verizon. But I do realize that this area is probably an exception to the rule.

I don't know enough about the market to evaluate the idea that Comcast and Verizon have enough of an advantage to create a monopoly/oligopoly whatever but I have to wonder how long an advantage that hinges on exclusivity of a physical distribution system (wires, cables, fiber, etc.) will last. With wireless telephone and TV being widely available, wireless internet can't be far behind which would pretty much wipe out their current stranglehold.

I'm no fan of monopolies but they are almost a necessary evil. If monopolies were benevolent overlords then the economic inefficiency they create would not exist. And it is this inefficiency which provides an economic incentive to provide the same good/service for less by innovating new and better systems of production and distribution.

So in the long run, monopolies cannot survive. But they will always be around. Its just part of a natural cycle.