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American ISPs are also universally terrible and also make no money. They engage in tons of anticompetitive practices and leech state money for no results. What

American ISPs are also universally terrible and also make no money. They engage in tons of anticompetitive practices and leech state money for no results. What if you can’t measure competitiveness by a single number?

lotsofpulp 2y ago
Because the assumption is that the people leading/owning these businesses want to earn more money, so if people had the power to earn more money, they would. Also, ISPs earn profit margins that are multiples more than grocery retail businesses: https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/CHTR/charter-communications/profit-margins https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/CHTR/charter-commu... https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/CMCSA/comcast/profit-margins https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/CMCSA/comcast/prof... https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/T/at-t/profit-margins https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/T/at-t/profit-marg... https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/VZ/verizon/profit-margins https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/VZ/verizon/profit-... https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/TMUS/t-mobile-us/profit-margins https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/TMUS/t-mobile-us/p... ATT and Lumen have terrible management wasting money on bad investments, so their profit margins are variable and not so hot. But competent businesses like Verizon/Comcast/Charter can easily milk their wired customers who only have 1 option for ISP.
- 082349872349872 2y ago
  If you're going to compare ISPs and grocery stores, you might want to include turnover in your model. (the person who invests in groceries, and turns over their inventory 15 times per year, faces a very different business from the person who invests in speculative software, and sees a handful of exits per career; the person running an ISP is likely somewhere in between those extremes)

lotsofpulp 2y ago

Because the assumption is that the people leading/owning these businesses want to earn more money, so if people had the power to earn more money, they would. Also, ISPs earn profit margins that are multiples more than grocery retail businesses: https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/CHTR/charter-communications/profit-margins https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/CHTR/charter-commu... https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/CMCSA/comcast/profit-margins https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/CMCSA/comcast/prof... https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/T/at-t/profit-margins https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/T/at-t/profit-marg... https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/VZ/verizon/profit-margins https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/VZ/verizon/profit-... https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/TMUS/t-mobile-us/profit-margins https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/TMUS/t-mobile-us/p... ATT and Lumen have terrible management wasting money on bad investments, so their profit margins are variable and not so hot. But competent businesses like Verizon/Comcast/Charter can easily milk their wired customers who only have 1 option for ISP.

082349872349872 2y ago
If you're going to compare ISPs and grocery stores, you might want to include turnover in your model. (the person who invests in groceries, and turns over their inventory 15 times per year, faces a very different business from the person who invests in speculative software, and sees a handful of exits per career; the person running an ISP is likely somewhere in between those extremes)