How do telephone companies get away with it?

Question

My parents live in a relatively small city -- about 25,000 people. There is a small independent telephone company which dominates the city -- for some reason no other carriers can offer service in this city? Anyways, what it boils down to is absolutely monopolistic prices on basic services like Internet access. This independent telephone company keeps buying out all the startup Internet companies so consumers have no other choice but to use the telephone company's internet service. My parents are paying $20/month for a dialup account -- DSL (750k/750k yuck!) is available for three months at a price of $25/month each month, then it jumps back to the normal price of $80/month. It's freaking ridiculous. The cities about 10 miles away are serviced by large scale companies (AT&T, MCI) which offer DSL (3.0M/896k) for $25/month. What can they do about this monoploy? It's 2007 -- $20/month for dialup or $80/month for slow DSL is ridiculous!

Not even clearwire is available (no coverage). I've checked literally 30+ internet suppliers. The only available options aside from using the monopoly services is to subscribe to satellite broadband which is equally as bad.

Thanks for teh the info regarding secretary of state -- I will follow up on that.

Answer 1

You can report it to your Secretary of State! The Department of Justice will investigate claims about Antitrust Law violations - monopoly in particular. You can go straight to DOJ as well, but they won't be as responsive to you as they are to your State's Secretary.

Answer 2

I don't know, but we have the same problem where I live. Little rinky dink po dunk phone company, with crappy service. And just a few miles over, they have Bell South. I don't think our phone company is buying everything up though, and their DSL isn't as high priced, but the price is pretty bad for the connection speed. I've checked around with other people, they said there's not much you can do. I've thought about calling the FTC-not sure if they'd be the ones to handle that though. But honestly, I wouldn't count on much being done....

Answer 3

Are you ready to do some investigating? Have you talked to the city planner, and ask them if the phone company has a contract with the town, if so, how long is that contract, why no other telecom companies are allowed? Does it have to do with the communication equipment, such as the cable laid out, owned by the company? Do the bigger companies want to spend the money to lay out their equipment in the town for the return that they would get in profit? It could be that the bigger companies do plan to install equipment in the town, but it is five to ten years down the line, because they have fifty other towns ahead of your parents.

Answer 4

I'm retired from Bellsouth & heres the story::::these small independent companies send their signals through our(larger compaines) at a discount rate & charge you for the profits,since they are so small they aren't regulated by the public service comission like we are so they charge whatever the market will bear.Usually they will not upgrade their equipment as quickly as we do because in essence they have no competion & the PSC isnt on their backs to make them do so since they are a small fish in the pond.We as a large company are force to let these companies to let them operate so that we will not be violating the antitrust law that gives everyone an opportunity to be in comptetion with us to keep us out of becomming a monoploy.This has been going on for a long time long b4 i went to work for them.Remember it use to be AT&T,thenSO CENTRAL BELLWhat most people dont know is they are working through networks they have bought from us.It gets very complex & i've had to service their networks so they could have service to sell to you.We aren't allowed to even say anything negative about it but they can say anything they want about us.However they have told me that we set the standards for them & its hard for them to meet our standards & many times they may not.I hope this helps i worked for a good company it was very demanding but we were the best in the business & i wish i could help you.All i can say is go to your Public Service Commission & lay out the problem to them & if you can get enough people to stay after them you will get some positive results in a short time.

Answer 5

This is perfectly normal for smaller cities. It's one of the prices you pay to get away from it all.

If you can prove that there is some illegal colluding going one (i.e., companies are price-fixing in order to eliminate competition), then contact the state's Secretary of State and ask them to investigate. But from the information you provided, it doesn't sound like that's the case.

Answer 6

Give me a break. This is 2007. Tell them to call clearwire. It doesn't need hardwire, so they compete across the nation.

888-809-8051

There is no monopoly there. This is only one of many wireless options available to them.

Answer 7

properly, start up through calling the cable organization and allowing them to recognize how in touch you're in getting service. that couldn't sparkling up your challenge up the front, notwithstanding it receives them questioning about extending service. There are literally some agencies providing instantaneous broadband in some parts. I doubt if it really is on your section yet, notwithstanding it is going to really help once you eventually get it.

Answer 8

capitalism