Re: "Can't get any TV" related question


phil-news-nospam@xxxxxxxx wrote:

On Thu, 17 Apr 2008 19:04:28 -0500 Pete C. <aux3.DOH.4@xxxxxxxx> wrote:

| It's not a monopoly. Cable directly competes with satellite TV, some
| telcos, and mail DVD / Internet content delivery services.

It's not the same. Internet is not available via satellite from them, so
those are out. Verizon FiOS is the only thing really starting to compete.
But it's still not yet enough.

In most locations you have some combination of the following choices:

Video TV / entertainment service - Cable, DVD by mail, Internet
delivered content, OTA, satellite, Telco
Internet service - Cable, DSL (telco and other), Satellite, MDS
Voice service - LEC, Cable, Cell / PCS carriers, satellite

There are few areas were you don't have at least two choices in each
category. Cable is simply not a monopoly, it's just one of many options
for a delivered entertainment service.


| I have no idea what you are trying to say about incumbent
| infrastructure, I used to work for a cable company and I can assure you
| that we built all our own infrastructure and rebuilt all of it during a
| big fiber upgrade.

But you would NOT have built one there at all if you didn't already have
the customer base that resulted from having the incumbent system. It's
not about the physical hardware.

Huh? The "incumbent system" you're referring to is called a city or
town. The telcos wouldn't have built there unless there was a city or
town, nor would the electric utility, gas utility, water, sewer, roads,
etc. To claim that a city or town is somehow an "incumbent system" is
absurd.


What if, before you upgraded the hardware, 4 other cable systems came in
and overbuilt in your area, and started to grab your customers because
their system was better. Your option to retain a likely 20% of what you
had before is to upgrade (a cost about the same as each of the others
doing an overbuild). Would you do that then? I think not because 20%
is not as likely to cover the investment. But then, the others would not
have come in and competed had they not been assured a much larger than 20%
share of the market.

Satellite TV (little dish) came in and is in full competition for every
home passed by the cable system. Telcos in some areas are in full
competition for every home passed by the cable system. Internet
delivered content is in full competition for every home passed by the
cable system. This has not stopped cable systems from upgrading their
physical plant as well as the services they offer, it's called
competition. If any of the competitors ignores their infrastructure and
services they will eventually fail.


| Perhaps you are thinking of alternate long distance companies which use
| the LEC's infrastructure for the last mile connections, or competitive
| Internet access providers who use the LEC's infrastructure to deliver
| DSL connections.

What I ultimately want is a free market choice of a number of different ways
to access whatever content.

This free market is there now and has been for a number of years, you
just need to take your blinders off and look at it.

Ultimately it will all be digital, anyway. But
if we don't have this competition, then these "captive market" monopolies will
get to AVOID innovations in technology (other than what lets them gouge their
customers even more),

Nearly all innovations in technology that cable companies have embraced
have been to increase system reliability and offer more service.

and innovations in other offerings like programming.

Cable was the one of the first innovators in programming. Cable expanded
the handful of OTA stations in a given market and added dozens of
specialty channels. Cable was the first to offer digital music channels.
Cable was the first to offer high speed Internet access to the general
public. Cable was one of the first sources of HD programming.

Most innovations in most markets comes from the smaller businesses coming in
to compete.

Not true in any of the examples cited above.

Certain kinds of business have plenty of competition and that
holds back the motivation to gouge customers. These include things like
banks, restaurants, stores, etc.

Hardly. Banks move very much in lock step with each other, what
competition you might see is superficial. A large percentage of
restaurants are owned by a small number of mega corporations. There
might be eight different restaurants in a shopping center, but chances
are there are only one or two owners of all of them.


It's an even bigger issue with internet providers. Cable and telcos are both
into it, but so far, both are still doing a terrible job at things like the
network privisioning, network management, etc. With enough competition we can
have a truly free market, and all the providers will have to provide a good
service or die.

I have both cable Internet and DSL Internet service and have had them
for a number of years. In that time I have had virtually no service
issues aside from the sub hour outages a few times a year when some line
gear fails. Every time I have done any speed testing I have found my
speeds consistent with what is provisioned. I don't currently use
satellite Internet but I have associates who do and they report no
issues either. Someone else I know has Internet via a MDS system and
report it works fine as well.
.

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