Earlier quoted context omitted.
You're being very naive, Comcast has more control and access to government then 'we'.
Currently.
Futurely too.
Comcast Acquiring Time Warner Cable In All Stock Deal Worth $45.2 Billion
261–270 of 332 posts
Re: Comcast Acquiring Time Warner Cable In All Stock Deal Worth $45.2 Billion
#262Earlier quoted context omitted.
We could all pressure our local governments to provide municipal internet. Many cities have already created services that are much faster too.
Internet providers need to quit playing these shenanigans all the time. What they do is they build public roads. You wouldn't allow a company to build a public road, and then go: "Safeway trucks get a free pass, cause we have a deal with them; everyone else, $5 per vehicle. Except for you, Best Buy, you pay $25 - except Saturday and Sunday, when you may not pass at all."
... Best Buy pays more than anyone else? Hm, this is starting to sound good.
Re: Comcast Acquiring Time Warner Cable In All Stock Deal Worth $45.2 Billion
#263Earlier quoted context omitted.
See his second paragraph about owning NBC.
That was also about monopoly power. If NBC were an independent entity, they would license their back catalogue to the highest bidder. Given that NBC is owned by a cable company, the strategy changes. The current dynamic for NBC is, if we license to Netflix, then some people will cut the cord, lowering Comcast/TWC cable revenue. The bigger Comcast is, the less likely NBC is willing to license content to Netflix. If NB…
That describes a vertical monopoly, which is not prohibited. If Apple hadn't acquired PA Semi, they would be selling their products on the open market to the highest bidder, etc. Same situation.
Re: Comcast Acquiring Time Warner Cable In All Stock Deal Worth $45.2 Billion
#264It's not like you ever have any choice with a cable provider anyway, the way it works is a cable company gets in bed with the local government and that's who gets to provide you with cable service.
I must be one of the lucky ones because I've had Comcast for over 10 years and the quality of service (customer service and cable/internet) has always been great. Pricing could be better but if you call they're always willing to give me promotional pricing deals, and there's always satellite TV and/or internet, DSL, or cellular.
Re: Comcast Acquiring Time Warner Cable In All Stock Deal Worth $45.2 Billion
#265Earlier quoted context omitted.
No. I believe in the concept of a natural monopoly for most utilities though - Building outside plant is horrendously expensive - it to me makes as much sense to have multiple cable providers as it does multiple sets of power/telephone/water/sewer infrastructure. I'd even like to see a fewer wireless carriers (consider that each for carrier are spending billions of dollars to roll out what amount to essentially ident…
If think if there is a natural monopoly on a resource used as a lifeline or by more that half of the citizen, the infra should be under the government's oversight and the service privatized and open to competition. Your wireless carrier example would be a single wireless network with as many as wished service providers. This would slow down new technology deployments, but the market might be mature enough to get it's…
We're going to be stuck with LTE for at least another 10 years - the big four can't really afford to upgrade the network again sooner than that - LTE for most of the carriers is a forklift upgrade - not just adding some cards and calling it good.
Consider that for the carrier that I work for - the equipment was installed originally in the 1996/97 timeframe, and while there has been some upgrades for EV-DO - the equipment and cabinets are largely of that generation.
Re: Comcast Acquiring Time Warner Cable In All Stock Deal Worth $45.2 Billion
#266Earlier quoted context omitted.
To play devil's advocate, what it means is that Comcast has the better business model. After all, that's why Apple and Samsung dominate the cellular industry. iApps running on iOS running on an iPhone using an Apple A7 offers the ability to optimize the user experience and integrate the layers that vendors doing things piecemeal can't match. If Netflix et al want to survive, they have to evolve from being mere middle…
Why precisely does Netflix need to "evolve"? I like Netflix just fine as it is, thank you very much. The totality of current online businesses are using "someone else's pipes", so framing that as a criticism strikes me as distinctly hollow.
Online businesses by and large use other people's pipes and that inherently makes them all vulnerable. Its like apps on iOS. Apple will always capture most of the value created by the ecosystem as a while, because they control the platform. App developers have little leverage. Its not profitable to be a sharecropper, but that's what online businesses largely are. Regulating and commoditizing the communications infrastructure into "dumb pipes" (I.e. net neutrality) is the only around that. Its regulation that picks winners and losers by telling an entire industry that they have to produce a commodity product so that online businesses can be protected from a flaw intrinsic to their business model.
Re: Comcast Acquiring Time Warner Cable In All Stock Deal Worth $45.2 Billion
#267Earlier quoted context omitted.
No. I believe in the concept of a natural monopoly for most utilities though - Building outside plant is horrendously expensive - it to me makes as much sense to have multiple cable providers as it does multiple sets of power/telephone/water/sewer infrastructure. I'd even like to see a fewer wireless carriers (consider that each for carrier are spending billions of dollars to roll out what amount to essentially ident…
> That said - the only way natural monopolies do not become abusive natural monopolies is thru intense and careful regulation Or by getting the fed' to build and handle the infrastructural side, and lease it to service providers (see: interstate). Then the expansion and improvement can be added to other infrastructural projects e.g. digging for a new interstate or rail line? Put that nice big bundle of dark fiber alo…
I've seen what government owned telecoms look like. I'll just say no, private is better.
Compare historical AT&T/Bell System to any of the government owned telecoms in the Americas.
Re: Comcast Acquiring Time Warner Cable In All Stock Deal Worth $45.2 Billion
#268Earlier quoted context omitted.
No. I believe in the concept of a natural monopoly for most utilities though - Building outside plant is horrendously expensive - it to me makes as much sense to have multiple cable providers as it does multiple sets of power/telephone/water/sewer infrastructure. I'd even like to see a fewer wireless carriers (consider that each for carrier are spending billions of dollars to roll out what amount to essentially ident…
This is very much in line with my own thinking. Wireless (cellular/radio/tv/...) affords some competition. Wired (power/water/sewage/copper/fiber) affords little last-mile competition it seems like. Unless municipalities made a real effort to make adding wire a simple proposition which does appear to happen in some places (Scandinavia springs to mind for some reason). These are real issues that keep cropping up and i…
Agreed - and if spectrum were unlimited - there would be no limits to the number of providers in the wireless markets - beyond the obvious - multiple sets of hardware most often at the same cell sites as other providers hardware.
Re: Comcast Acquiring Time Warner Cable In All Stock Deal Worth $45.2 Billion
#269Earlier quoted context omitted.
No. I believe in the concept of a natural monopoly for most utilities though - Building outside plant is horrendously expensive - it to me makes as much sense to have multiple cable providers as it does multiple sets of power/telephone/water/sewer infrastructure. I'd even like to see a fewer wireless carriers (consider that each for carrier are spending billions of dollars to roll out what amount to essentially ident…
> That said - the only way natural monopolies do not become abusive natural monopolies is thru intense and careful regulation - mostly by setting a fixed rate of return for the infrastructure, and then building rates from that. Or better yet, having the natural monopoly infrastructure, narrowly defined, run by local government and rented out at standard rates to all private service providers.... You know, have the ci…
I don't like government monopoly owned telecommunications infrastructure - I'd rather see something larger scale and privately owned, regulated monopolies are OK, unregulated ones are not.
Re: Comcast Acquiring Time Warner Cable In All Stock Deal Worth $45.2 Billion
#270Earlier quoted context omitted.
No. I believe in the concept of a natural monopoly for most utilities though - Building outside plant is horrendously expensive - it to me makes as much sense to have multiple cable providers as it does multiple sets of power/telephone/water/sewer infrastructure. I'd even like to see a fewer wireless carriers (consider that each for carrier are spending billions of dollars to roll out what amount to essentially ident…
> it to me makes as much sense to have multiple cable providers as it does multiple sets of power/telephone/water/sewer infrastructure. That's how things work here in Brazil, some cities have 2 DSL providers or 2 cable providers. Big capitals may have both, and fiber. Also, there are a bunch o local radio providers. It is way better for the consumer, as all of them suck and at least you can choose the least sucking o…
I dont think it is - here at least, the costs are huge.