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A utility is generally considered a monopoly - there is usually only one wire leading to your house. I can choose Sprint, T-mobile, Verizon or ATT. What monop

A utility is generally considered a monopoly - there is usually only one wire leading to your house. I can choose Sprint, T-mobile, Verizon or ATT. What monopoly are you speaking of?

ropiku 9y ago
But if you're in a longer term contract you're out of luck for a while. If they are allowed to change the service then they must allow customers to switch providers without exit fee.
slackingoff2017 9y ago
Ah yes, a single example is more than enough to override the mountains of evidence that the majority of Americans only have a single choice of internet provider. Power is setup the same way in some states, where multiple companies share the wires. This is only because the government demands the wires be shared fairly. Its an interesting arrangement, essentially a regulated monopoly called a utility.
- tuna-piano 9y ago
  The article is about wireless providers. Sprint/ATT/Verizon/T-Mobile all cover the vast majority of the population.
zanny 9y ago
Monopolies are not only formed of one company, they can be a collusion of companies so long as the barrier to entering the market and competing with the colluders is impossibly high. Considering the barrier to entry to becoming a cellular operator is owning spectrum, that is one of the most impossibly high barriers to usurp. Nobody has to sell you any, the owners can set whatever price they want, and there are no mechanisms to mitigate this state-created impossible to overcome monopoly on light. Landline access, by comparison, is macro-harder and micro-easier. It is more likely you can get easement rights to run fiber on a given street than to get the right to use wavelengths of EM, but trying to get easement in an entire city can be similarly impossible.
- rpenm 9y ago
  It takes significant non-monetary motives (eg. personal relationships or cultural norms) to maintain a cartel.
deepsun 9y ago
I have only one cable running into my house: Comcast. San Francisco, California.

A utility is generally considered a monopoly - there is usually only one wire leading to your house. I can choose Sprint, T-mobile, Verizon or ATT. What monopoly are you speaking of?

ropiku 9y ago

But if you're in a longer term contract you're out of luck for a while. If they are allowed to change the service then they must allow customers to switch providers without exit fee.

slackingoff2017 9y ago

Ah yes, a single example is more than enough to override the mountains of evidence that the majority of Americans only have a single choice of internet provider. Power is setup the same way in some states, where multiple companies share the wires. This is only because the government demands the wires be shared fairly. Its an interesting arrangement, essentially a regulated monopoly called a utility.

tuna-piano 9y ago
The article is about wireless providers. Sprint/ATT/Verizon/T-Mobile all cover the vast majority of the population.

zanny 9y ago

Monopolies are not only formed of one company, they can be a collusion of companies so long as the barrier to entering the market and competing with the colluders is impossibly high. Considering the barrier to entry to becoming a cellular operator is owning spectrum, that is one of the most impossibly high barriers to usurp. Nobody has to sell you any, the owners can set whatever price they want, and there are no mechanisms to mitigate this state-created impossible to overcome monopoly on light. Landline access, by comparison, is macro-harder and micro-easier. It is more likely you can get easement rights to run fiber on a given street than to get the right to use wavelengths of EM, but trying to get easement in an entire city can be similarly impossible.

rpenm 9y ago
It takes significant non-monetary motives (eg. personal relationships or cultural norms) to maintain a cartel.

deepsun 9y ago

I have only one cable running into my house: Comcast. San Francisco, California.