Monopolies

[fallenrose]

So, how on earth is it LEGAL, when we are supposed to have anti-trust/anti-monopoly laws, that when you move you are forced to use the phone company that services that area, period, and they apparently have a law in place that no other provider is allowed to come in and compete? Hello, capitalists? How is this legal

Comments

[finding_helena]

I dunno, I guess you could just choose to get a cell phone? That's kind of lame though. Perhaps the premise is that they only have a monopoly over a certain area, not everywhere.

[d_c_m]

It's all crap and my economist hubby says the same thing. :)

[mindstalk]

...I always thought of phone lines as a natural monopoly, like water pipes or power or cable or roads. Investment in covering an area in lines precludes effective competition, and so the monopoly becomes public or regulated, which I suppose further secures the monopoly. Such laws would trump state anti-trust things, and federal laws probably wouldn't touch local monopolies. (Not interstate commerce.) Recall when AT&T was broken up, it was broken up into several regional Bells; we didn't suddenly have brisk competition for local phone lines.