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Cablecos, Telcos Working To Strengthen the Duopoly

Posted by kdawson on from the let's-you-and-hiim-collude dept.

The LA Times is running a piece on cooperation among cable companies and telcos. No, not cablecos cooperating with telcos; rather, both industries working on industry-wide initiatives aimed at getting a leg up on the other. AT&T, Verizon, and Qwest have been working on a site, Moveroo.com, aimed at easing the pain of people moving within the US — by making it easier for them to hook up with the incumbent telco at their destination, for instance. Odd that there is no mention of which cable services might be available where they are heading. The cablecos are cooperating on a more ambitious initiative to standardize targeted advertising nationwide, using data gathered from the set-top boxes used by Time Warner, Cox, Comcast, Cablevision, Charter, and Bright House Networks. The article quotes a spokesman from a utility consumers' action group: " [The spokesman] said these moves by the telecom and cable industries may be good for the respective businesses, but they almost surely won't be good for consumers. 'All they're doing is creating obstacles to each other's industry from gaining an advantage,' he said. 'That's not competition.' Well, it is. But not the kind that benefits customers."

5 of 113 comments (clear)

  1. Ok -the sky is falling. So WHAT? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Given that the government has been bought and paid for by large corporate donors and there is no other game in town, and given that boycotting is impractical (and would make no difference) --you expect us to do WHAT exactly?

  2. Meh... by negRo_slim · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Jesus was a communist, Jesus was a pacifist, Jesus was a communist, Jesus didn't like the rich - Reagan Youth

    Back to the topic at hand, I firmly believe these industries need to be nationalized. Or at least something along the line of utility companies. The fact of the matter is they exist to serve the citizens (or at least should due to public easements and what have you), but their commitment is to making that dollar... I don't see how that is ever going to change. But I do see how I never have to worry about gas or electric company trying to pull some underhanded move or using my payments to fund lobbyists to further their agenda. Nah when the power company wants to raise rates it's done in a public forum and it has to be okay'd by whatever governmental committee is in charge of that. Which obviously isn't a perfect system but it works and you don't see massive consumer unrest towards entities with such oversight.

    --
    On the Oregon Cost born and raised, On the beach is where I spent most of my days
    1. Re:Meh... by Attila+Dimedici · · Score: 3, Insightful

      their agenda. Nah when the power company wants to raise rates it's done in a public forum and it has to be okay'd by whatever governmental committee is in charge of that. Which obviously isn't a perfect system but it works and you don't see massive consumer unrest towards entities with such oversight.

      The electric company never uses your paymenys to fund lobbyists? What are you smoking? The electric companies are the telcos' and cable companies' wet dream. What do you think Enron was? That's right it was primarily an electricity and gas company.

      --
      The truth is that all men having power ought to be mistrusted. James Madison
    2. Re:Meh... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Naaa free market only works in fairy tales.

      Im no fan of the government by any means, but you need to regulate markets where competition isn't high enough to do it for you.

      If theres 500 alternatives for internet service it wouldn't need to be regulation, we'd get good service and pricing from the companies trying to cut each others throats to make sure we sign up with them and not somebody else.

      But theres basically two options now, and those two options discovered the can both make WAY more money by cooperating with each other and screwing the customer over.

      Lack of control over a market gave us the RIAA, Microsoft, the telcos we have now. The days of 'the customer is always right' are long gone. Now we have corporations that have more money than most national governments, when something gets that big we need something else that big to to keep it in check.

      The only realistic solution at this point is to nationalize the infrastructure and then open it up to lease from ISP's. Then there will be no barrier to entry in the market and we'll see new local ISP's pop up anywhere they think they can steal customers from sombody else by offering a better service.

      Added bonus; its alot harder to spy on the net where theres a thousand little ISP's rather than just asking AT&T

  3. Duh! by zappepcs · · Score: 5, Insightful

    " [The spokesman] said these moves by the telecom and cable industries may be good for the respective businesses, but they almost surely won't be good for consumers. 'All they're doing is creating obstacles to each other's industry from gaining an advantage,' he said. 'That's not competition.' Well, it is. But not the kind that benefits customers."

    People have been saying this all along. There is no move by either company that is aimed at achieving anything other than coin for the shareholder. Their level of collusion with the **AA et al is debated, but seems inevitable. We are seeing the beginnings of the next level of content cartel being born. Each is seeking to be the biggest triple or quadruple-play content provider. The rumors that they want to charge you for access to various content on the Internet is not so far fetched as you might at first think. The large ISPs finally figured out that they now own the distribution channel for content in the foreseeable future and want to own it the way that the **AA have previously done.

    No, I'm not wearing a tin-foil hat, this is a logical conclusion. Without control of distribution there is no big bucks to be made, no expensive houses, cars, coke parties. Yes, $45 for your standard package, with tiered charges for extra 'Internet channels' like YouTube or Google or MP3World etc.

    What they are fighting about now is how to legally divide up the Internet content and not be taken to court. Comcast just lost one of the test battles.

    If remuneration for good services rendered were their goal, there would be no court cases. There would be no throttling of traffic. There would be no hints of collusion with the **AA. There would be no one questioning what ISPs should monitor and what they should not.

    In an ideal world, a massive boycott of commercial content would put everything in perspective for them. Unfortunately that won't happen. We are all the poorer for it.

    What can be done? support independent content makers now. Encourage more bands to use the pay what you like model. Eventually the message that if people won't even pirate your content, you are not worth supporting will become an industry insiders golden rule.

    It's time that such a message was sent to those spending money in Washington. Sad that it will never get there.

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    Support NYCountryLawyer RIAA vs People