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Switzerland Moves Toward a Universal Phone Charger Standard (vice.com)
Press2ToContinue writes: Apple's Lightning cable cartel be damned: Switzerland is moving forward with a plan for a single, universal phone charger across the country, standardizing phone chargers across the board. While the exact standard hasn't been mentioned yet, it wouldn't be hard to guess the standard: Micro USB, used across phone platforms, most especially Android, which has a gigantic chunk of the cell phone market worldwide.
The likely loser? Apple, which has relied on proprietary chargers since introducing the iPhone in 2007. While many companies have tried releasing generic cables, Apple often relies on DRM software to ensure that it's an Apple certified cable, charging $19 a piece for the Lightning charger used by the iPhone 5 and 6 and similar models.
What do you think -- are government-mandated standards for chargers a good idea? Despite the success of the standard household 3-prong electrical plug, doesn't this hamper progress? China seems to have done most of the work on the wall-circuit side of the equation,several years ago. But as to the "standard" 3-prong plug, any particular plug type is only as universal as the sockets and voltages they supply.
The likely loser? Apple, which has relied on proprietary chargers since introducing the iPhone in 2007. While many companies have tried releasing generic cables, Apple often relies on DRM software to ensure that it's an Apple certified cable, charging $19 a piece for the Lightning charger used by the iPhone 5 and 6 and similar models.
What do you think -- are government-mandated standards for chargers a good idea? Despite the success of the standard household 3-prong electrical plug, doesn't this hamper progress? China seems to have done most of the work on the wall-circuit side of the equation,several years ago. But as to the "standard" 3-prong plug, any particular plug type is only as universal as the sockets and voltages they supply.
Switzerland movies nothing, our Government just tries to suck up to the EU wherever they can and copy their laws... and, it just mandates a USB-Plug *on the charger*, so even for the crap from Cuppertino it does not change anything...
Standards are the basis of a free market, and proprietary "standards" are the basis of proprietary lock-in.
Governments are given the oversight to ensure that there still is a free market.
Examples for proprietary "standards" being used for proprietary lock-in:
-> microsoft office to make interopability with their formats hard
-> whatsapp's messaging protocol. its basically xmpp, but they still only allow the official client to communicate
-> printer cartriges, even used to lie to the customer by lowering the price for the printer.
http://www.douglasadams.com/dna/980707-03-a.html
Industry standards are great Govt mandated standards always make things worse and serve to enrich a minority of players. While penalizing innovators. Why should Switzerland care if one company wants to do its own thing, and some Swiss citizens choose to buy it? govt overreach, I prefer to live in US.
These articles are about EU adopting an universal phone standard. Switzerland isn't a part of the EU, only schengen.
The current story is about switzerland adopting the law.
The swiss people are smart: they only adopt the EU laws that make sense.
Where does it say that the purpose of govt is to regulate the free market? Why would the govt know better than industry which things should be standardized or not? Innovation is a Good Thing, and mandated standards pee on this.
The EU has mandated USB-style chargers by law for a couple of years now. These regulations do not prohibit proprietary charge connectors, just the ability to charge a phone from USB through an adapter.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
Given technologies like USB-C and various wireless chargers, it's not clear that these regulations really are very meaningful.
EFTA membership is important here I suspect:
http://www.europarl.europa.eu/...
http://m.earth.org.uk/
There is no Lightning Charger, the charger has a normal USB connection. There is a Lightning cable, however. And to be honest I love it that for once I don't have to think which side goes up (or sideways). If this standard is any good it will use the new USB Type C standard.
FWIW I rather pay a "premium" on a cable that will not fry my hardware and might burn my house down.
Perl Programmer for hire
... government standardization would be a good thing since the vendors obviously aren't going to do it themselves. Proprietary connectors mostly help the vendors with lock-in due to patents which only helps to pad the balance sheets of those vendors.
The problem with chargers cables is that it seems they are designed by young designers, who have a perfect vision.
But after fifty years almost everyone experiences a deterioration of vision. It is so simple to make an explicit clear design of a plug, still I am to put on my glasses just to connect a smartphone to a charger.
It is not only with cables, it's with everything, an iron, a headphones, etc. About everything is designed by young cool people with perfect youthful vision.
3: a business secretly owned by and run as a cover for an intelligence organization
Switzerland has it's own power outlet standard, yet it wants to enforce a phone charging standard:
http://www.worldstandards.eu/e...
Instead of choosing a popular power standard, they created their own - hypocrisy is great isn't it?
The reason government enforced standards suck is that governments typically are not entrepreneurial in nature. They don't actively look for the next great thing - simply because that's not what government's do.
If the standard becomes micro USB what becomes of USB C? It's better in almost every way - faster, reversible, and in some cases cheaper. Will innovation simply be tossed aside for government standards compliance?
The phone charging problem is something the free market can solve very effectively. There is no reason for government to dictate standards like this.
At this point, the charger standard should really allow for USB Type C or microUSB.
Regardless, I hope, for their sake, that they actually make manufacturers bundle any required adapters with the phones. Despite all the fancy talk, Apple still only sells lightning to microUSB adapters instead of bundling them with the phones, effectively rendering the standard mostly useless, since everyone was standardizing on microUSB anyway.
This solution would also be helpful for the microUSB to USB type C transition.
As long as the law does not also forbid to bundle chargers with phones, also demanding that the phone+charger price has to be higher than the phone-only price, not much is gained.
Sure, people might save some money on secondary chargers, but I don't know many people who ever bought such.
Ah, and BTW, the fixed, proprietary, non-user replaceable batteries are even more of a problem than the chargers, as they allow manufacturers to limit the lifetime of their phones easily, if only by asking unreasonable prices for batteries (like it is also common amongst camera manufacturers).
We're going to standardize on a standard which is itself obsolete and was replaced by a new standard, which we will surely standardize on as soon as another standard replaces it.
(Technically, micro-USB is two generations out of date, but only if you count the abomination that is USB 3.0 micro-B)
How can I believe you when you tell me what I don't want to hear?
Interesting, didn't know that.
However, regulating the production seems to be just more practical than searching through all trash cans for illegal dumping of toxic waste.
The phone charging problem is something the free market can solve very effectively. There is no reason for government to dictate standards like this.
Neither can you buy an iPhone with an USB charging plug on the iPhone, nor can you buy an Android with the Apple charger.
So: you free market seems not to work. And I really wonder by what magic you think the free market would give us a universal plug? Care to explain? And care to explain what timeframe that will happen 'due to free market'?
Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
On the one hand, I have drawers full of old phones and chargers...so I reckon standards are good.
On the other, my kids (and to a lesser extent I) enjoyed the extended functionality that iPhone sockets brought to (cheap, non-Apple) peripherals like bedside alarms, autonomous amp/speakers in the bathroom or by the pool, replacement car stereos...access to contacts, charging, music and all without Apple or Android "car OS" bullshit. And no, bluetooth alternatives for non-Apple devices do not count...only recently have they become remotely equivalent in reliability of connection, integration and ease of use.
The cheapo Chinese iThings mostly "Just Worked"...(OK, albeit with hilariously poor and inconsistent interfaces)
Well, up to iPhone 4s anyway.
All that came to a grinding halt with later iPhones / iOS.
Since my kids and cats routinely lose, loan, or just simply destroy chargers and cables, I have a bunch of hard-wired armoured micro-USB cables all around the house, the garden, the cars etc.
Fine for me and the wife with Android 'phones; for kids and visitors a small "tip" that converted the mini-USB to Lightening was attached with a steel flying wire near the end, (fishing line header, if you're interested...)
Neat little thing, bought for cheap. Worked fine.
Until an "update" rendered them useless...
Fuck you Apple.
Oh, and don't get me started on how later iOS updates rendered the user interface LESS usable.
Fuck you again, boys, and BTW fuck iTunes while we're at it.
Now if you'll excuse me, I'm off to mow the lawn.
but to splurge on the essentials.
The article claims that apple is going to lose. This is wrong: it will be the apple fan boys who will have to shell out for an overly expensive bit of wire. Still: probably a small fraction of what they have already paid in over priced kit.
Except that's the whole point of standardizing on a single charger - to prevent the bloat of phone chargers you'd otherwise get.
Apple expects Apptards to upgrade their Appdevice once a year. We're coming up on the 11th generation of iPhone (1, 2, 3, 3GS, 4, 4S, 5, 5S, 6, 6s - yes, 6s is suddenly lowercase because Apple), which means an Apptard who's upgraded every year like Apple tells them to will be getting their 11th charger and 5th Lightning cable.
The entire point is that you should only need one cable and one charger. Replace the phone as much as you want, you shouldn't need a new charger.
(like it is also common amongst camera manufacturers).
I'm well aware of proprietary batteries, but I don't think I've ever come across a camera with a fixed battery. No photographer would accept that. Check out a professional photographer's bag and they'll not only have multiple cameras, they'll have multiple batteries and multiple flash cards. The ability to change batteries for a fresh one in a camera is absolutely vital, you'd never be able to sell one without that ability.
Of course, Apple has their own overpriced solution for dealing with their phone's hilariously short battery life, except not even Apptards are falling for that.
USB-C is a way better connector - No schrodinger's cat problem where the ports direction isn't determined until you try it the first time, so it always takes 3 tries. Aupports higher power etc - just a way better standard than Micro B
-- 73 de KG2V For the Children - RKBA! "You are what you do when it counts" - the Masso
If people don't want to pay Apple's prices they can purchase a different phone.
Does it work in Europe?
IBM UBA
I can't buy a Ford with a Chevy interior and you're an idiot babbling hysterically while applying delusional ideas to a standard, defined economic concept.
Yeah let design everything for the lower common denominator. Everything must be adapted for blind old handicapped morbidly obese women of colour with no dexterity and the mental age of a 4 year old.
You are old, that is sad. Bad news, it will not improve over time. Perhaps you should start relaying on your other senses? Try to touch the connector and line them up by feel. Or you can always wait for the cyborg eyes implants...
or drink a gallon of bleach.
that'd solve it for sure.
and if he's going to do it, you could, too!
unless you're a just a big chicken.
you're not a big chicken, are you, punk?
All standards fail to keep up with the future needs in the tech field... They take years to refine and then are almost obsolete when made a standard. The devices they will charge will want one connector. They also want to drive external video, take input from flash media, and quickly sync the ever larger memory on the devices. And they preclude completely wireless charging, unless the charging cradle or pad is accepted as the device proxy. So, the current front runner would be the USB-C connector. But, how soon until its capacity is eclipsed by device needs. And then we are adding the speed of government to the speed of standards development, and attempting to match the speed of innovation. Let the free market decide.
I hate (HATE!) the various phone charger variations intended to sell you over prices proprietary cables as much as the next guy. But, this is an area that government doesn't need to stick its busybody nanny nose into. Let the market decide. If people are sick of the proprietary cable shit, they'll stop buying that product and the manufacture will be force to capitulate or die.
I hate Apple and their games. But I'm here to tell you that their reversible cable is VASTLY superior to the micro USB design, that never fits on the first attempt. Apple's cable makes for very easy use and a very small port. It is excellent, even if Apple sucks and robs people for it.
USB-C is promising. But, it's not available on anything yet, so I can't say if it is the one to rule them all. Either way. the government won't know about it and will shackle poor users with an inferior option.
But, the worst thing of all about it is that the consumer will not have a choice. Even if they are willing to spend much more for a better cable, they won;t be allowed one because of government intrusion. Fuck that!
with the exception of apple and samsung, and maybe one or two more phone vendors, most phones already use micro usb. and tablets. and cameras. and wireless controllers. and electronic cigarettes. the list of items that use micro usb is quite large already.
Switzerland is a tiny country that isn't part of the EU. So it can do what it likes, and the rest of us can totally ignore it.
I doubt if Apple or anyone else is likely to care about this. Even if it became a worldwide standard, a USBLightning charging cable is no problem, and I don't think the cable itself has any DRM - I can buy a generic branded one in my local tech store for a few bucks.
I e had two different chargers across all of my iOS devices: the 30-pin and lightning. My Samsung devices have had at least one 30-pin-like adapter, mini USB and micro USB. In terms of how often I'm buying replacement cables, I've been better off with Apple.
When you add in USB Type-C, that'll make four different standards to just two for Apple devices.
Maybe I'm too naÃve to see the issue?
This is not about universal charger cables, but universal chargers. Apple chargers have a USB port, and include a USB-to-lightning cable.
So yes, Apple is already mostly compliant with EU regulations. Replacing the USB-A connector with a micro-USB is an easy change for Apple.
...You are over-qualified and under-paid. If we give you a raise, we will break the cosmic balance of the universe.
Really.. https://xkcd.com/927/
angel'o'sphere has a valid point, and your use of hyperbole just means that you have no valid argument.
Most americans don't.
They still think London is a country.
The battery life on the iPhone is just fine and the average Apple device outlasts the average Android device. But thanks for the endless ad hominems. It's really all you got.
> Maybe you can explain how the U.S. created the Bell System (aka Ma Bell)
It's called a "franchise". The govrrnment of the state or city allows only one company to run wires in the city. In turn, the company helps fund the politicians campaign. It was a long time ago that Bell did it, and of course for phone service most people now use wireless. Now, these government- mandated monopolies, called franchises, affect us most regarding cable TV companies, who also provide internet service. In most cities, only one provider is allowed to run cables; competition is effectively illegal. In a few of the largest cities, like New York, it's divided up by neighborhoods. The New York map is interesting- only Comcast can serve one side of the street, the other side of the street is only Cox . It's illegal for Cox to put a cable across the street and compete with Comcast.
It isn't?
Don't you remember all the different chargers? I love being able to use any micro USB charger with any phone or camera. No more digging around to find the proprietary charger that I may have labelled to identify the device that it works with. It may pay the individual companies to design their own proprietary chargers and still be better for the consumer for the government to insist on a single design standard. The "free market" isn't some wonder drug.
It's a de-facto standard, to be sure. On my desk at the moment, I have Bluetooth speaker; bluetooth keyboard, a small "dye-sub" printer, a bluetooth mouse, my phone, a PS Vita, an NVIDIA shield tablet, the game controller for the tablet, and a charger for my camera's batteries. All of these devices are powered/charged by micro-usb. For the past several years, I have been trying to avoid devices that do not allow charging via micro-usb. I made an exception recently for a Pebble smartwatch - the "other" end of the charging cable is USB of course, so I don't need an extra wall wart for it.
Reality is defined by the maddest person in the room
They could have legislated that all phones must use an 80pin SCSI connector!
As much as I hate Apple's proprietariness I also hate the idea that we'd be stuck at micro USB. Not that I want smaller but I want faster connections or wireless or other solution so be available.
The Ford and Chevy take the same gasoline, in the same government-mandated intake port.
The free market doesn't work. Mandated standards do.
Natural monopoly of utilities is a myth created by a history of inefficient allocation of rights of way. It's possible for government-owned rights of way to remain competitive. All a local government has to do is bury several conduits under a road or sidewalk, with the intent to sell the conduits later to competing utilities.
It's not a perfect analogy, as it's common to own a house longer than the 20 year lifetime of a patent.
No one has answered the question Why? Why do we need "universal plugs" whatever that means?
It's your device, take responsibility for it and carry the appropriate cables and chargers. If you don't like the arrangement your vendor has provided, buy a different product.
We've turned into whiny little people and we want government to step in on every little topic we don't like.
This is absurd. We have far bigger problems and government should not waste the people's time on stupid issues like charging cables.
Here it is:
http://www.apple.com/shop/prod...
All Android and iPhones that I'm aware of will charge just fine on most USB chargers - you simply need to supply the correct cable.
Is this really an issue that warrants government intervention?
Except a title like "Switzerland Harmonizes Phone Power Plug Rule to EU" might have a negative ring among Slashdot users because "harmonizing rules to the EU" was the excuse to push things like the Copyright Term Extension Act of 1998.
Ever try to buy diesel at a station that only sells gasoline? Some two-stroke engines require oil and gas mix. Some old cars require lead additive to fuel.
Should the government force engine standardization for convenience's sake?
Choice is good, and it's your responsibility to have the appropriate cables and chargers for your device. It's also your responsibility to choose the appropriate fuels for your particular engine.
Whining about standards is ridiculous. If you don't like a particular charging solution - don't buy the product.
We're coming up on the 11th generation of iPhone (1, 2, 3, 3GS
The iPhone went straight from iPhone to iPhone 3G, then 3GS. There was no 2.
We standardize on mains voltage and wattage because to have hundreds of different outlets with unknown power. It didn't matter a whole lot when only lightbulbs were powered. Since the 1980's minituritization and low voltage devices have largely relied on cheap passive power supplies. The price of copper is largely what is driving the demand for a reliable standard so that these "power vampires" are replaced.
Ideally , usb charging works but it doesn't solve the future-proofing that the 120V/15A offers. A USB 1.0 offers 250ma, USB3.1 100 watts at 5A. The -C connector isn't going to allow that much power for sustained periods of time because the thin wires will become a fire hazard.
The end result is that any standard is going to get undermined by future revisions of the USB spec.
I fail to see why that's a problem. Having a type A slot on the charger means that any phone w/ the correct cord can be charged - not just Apple or Android but also past generations of phones that may have used other types, like mini USB (used on the old Moto Razrs) or the proprietary types from Nokia, Samsung or LG.
Only issue as far as charging goes is iToys sometimes refusing to charge when not using the original white Apple made connectors. But even that happens only in certain environments, like a car's USB port.
As far as standardizing goes, USB has a pretty sordid record itself. Type A & Type B was fine, then you had mini, then micro, now Type C is coming out that is symmetric... Why can't the USB committee just standardize on Apple's lightning connector, instead of reinventing the wheel?
Yep. It's so fine that Apple felt the need to create an accessory solely to deal with the fact that the iPhone can't even last a full day without needing to be recharged. One that's been roundly decried as being hilariously ugly, probably because Apple had to release it ASAP to prevent Apptards from realizing that maybe a phone should last a complete day without needing constant charging.
I hope the EU will be proactive and mandate a single car charger standard. It would be extremely stupid to fragment the EV power supply market like phones used to be before the microUSB standard.
The micro plug is already old, and it can't be inverted. The newer USB plug takes care of that.
While the same plug is used for other things like data transfer, should this mean that a newer and better plug would have to be barred and the burden on the phone to keep the tech old? A square plug is harder to make watertight. A circular shape is easier to plug.
Wireless/inductive charging may be an option, optical data transfer is really old, so who needs a cable anyway?
The price penalty from Apple has not kept people from buying their stuff. If it expensive enough the "problem" will solve itself.
Governments regulating this would not assure the best technical options now and in the future. The landfills are undoubtedly full of old phone chargers and in retrospect a standard charger could have been there from the start, however hindsight is usually too good. If landfill prevention is an objective add recycling options. Please do not prevent innovation.
You lost me at "apptards". Seriously, be an adult if you want to have an actual conversation. Since you seem to think all Apple customers are idiots, why do you even care what cable they use? They're beneath your superior intellect anyhow.
And the extra cables when upgrading... It's nice to have one to keep at the office, one to keep in the car, one to keep at my home desk, and another next to the bed. Extra cables and chargers do come in handy.
Why not a whole home low voltage standard? 5v, 12v etc. Maybe multiple connector options for varying requirements. A small formfactor, a high current form factor, a lighting formfactor etc.
It should force it to the extent that it is practical. You provide a perfect example. Cars fueled on gasoline are standardized but differing technology is allowed and provisions can be made for legacy hardware.
Ironically, Switzerland uses a three prong power plug design that is used almost nowhere else in the world.
Apple, which has relied on proprietary chargers since introducing the iPhone in 2007.
iPhones don't use USB for charging??
Apple never ceases to amaze me.
Speaking of standardisation. Has CH moved away yet from their own, Swiss-only, 3-prong standard to the ever-so-slightly-different format used just about everywhere else in Europe? (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mains_electricity_by_country)
On the positive side, they use the same 2-prong plug ("Type C") as many European and other countries, which fits into the same socket as the above-mentioned 3-prong (lacking the earth pin), so this is just some slight snarkiness that does not have much bearing in reality on phone chargers.
Free, as in your money being freed from the confines of your account.
standard household 3-prong electrical plug
I have never seen this standard in my life. It may be a standard in your country but as worldwide standard this is a fantasy.
The only 3-prong electrical plugs I've seen are computer power-cable extensions. My standard cables for standard 230V have 2 prongs, possible with an additional slot for earthing.
USB Type-C would be better. I've been using it on my Nexus 5X since it's recent launch and it's so much better than Micro-USB, and just as much of an open standard.
Besides, the U.S. DMCA doesn't ban circumvention of DRM if the DRM is primarily controlling access to something other than a work of authorship. Lexmark v. Static Control Components.
I'd like to see all chargers, cables and batteries standardized based on the current draw needed. Thus the battery for my laptop would still be made and for future ones too. The same applies to the charger and associated charger connector, and cigarette lighter charger connectors. I have tons and tons of various adapters and connectors to recharge various devices that I've bought'n over the years and must constantly search my box of adapters for the right one.
...plugging in cables without doing the twist-around dance is a good thing. Rumor has it Apple actually gave that design to the USB forum because well...
Because, well, it's so "damn hard" to design one, eh? Get real FFS...
devices that draw 2A have been known to explode/set on fire cheap chargers.
Oh yeah. Cause, you know, it's so damn hard thing / engineers outside Apple are such idiots that design phones that you must "hold right" to not lose signal... Oh wait...
USB-100mA
USB by default will deliver 100mA of current (it is 500mW power because we know it is 5v, right?) to a device. This is the most you can pull from a USB hub that does not have its own power supply, as they never offer more than 4 ports and keep a greedy 100mA for themselves.
Some computers that are cheaply built will use an bus-powered hub(all of your USB connections share the same 500mA source and the electronics acting as a hub use that source also) internally to increase the number of USB ports and to save a small amount of money. This can be frustrating, but you can always be guaranteed 100mA.
USB-500mA
When a device is connected it goes through enumeration. This is not a trivial process and can be seen in detail on Jan Axelson's site.
Coming up (up to 100w):
http://www.usb.org/developers/...
But it is representative of the government of the jurisdiction where SlashdotMedia parent DHI Group is headquartered.
Instead of choosing a popular power standard, they created their own - hypocrisy is great isn't it?
They took the standard Type-C Euro standard and improved it, by adding a ground. The standard was demonstrably unsafe, so they improved it. Types E, F, J, K, and N are all based on C, and were all competing standards. No standard won out everywhere C was used, and though the jacks are no longer C, any electric device that can get away with it is C, and works just fine in Switzerland.
Learn to love Alaska
the thought of a free market is more important than wanting to improve cabled charger technology.
This idea of "no vendor lock-in" = "free market" seems to be fairly new.
If you wanted to replace your driveshaft in 1930, the Ford part and the Chevrolet part were not interchangeable. Yet nobody complained that this constituted an un-free market.
Yes, imposing a standard type of charger will remove vendor lock-in, but it's quite un-free in terms of consumer choice and the vendor's freedom to manufacture the best-performing design.
I find Lightning cables much more convenient than micro-USB cables, and I'm happy to pay a premium for them. Looks like the freedom to use a Lightning cable will be going away in Switzerland.
That that is is that that that that is not is not.
It is hard to design USB well, particularly with respect to power: a *huge* thing is making sure it's safe- Lithium batteries are dangerous when charged wrong, and if there is a fire, the lawyers will be after everyone they can possibly name in the suit. Remember that the lithium battery is very energy-dense- a lot of energy in a small space means the potential for a lot of heat in a small space.
All computers have some method of limiting the current out of their USB ports- if they don't, they can't get a USB Logo. During enumeration, a device requests more current, and the computer keeps track of the current available. If the current isn't available, enumeration fails. If a device draws too much current, the computer can crash, as it will drag the computer's 5V rail down. Most computers have current limiting in the form of a NTC resistor that will limit current but only after it heats up, so there is a delay, so short term overcurrents that aren't long enough to heat up the NTC resistor are dangerous. USB relies on the devices following the spec. If you violate the spec, you fail to get USB logo- and many of the big OEMs require logoed devices.
There are many USB hubs that can natively support more than 4 ports: Microchip's USB2517 is one (of many) I'm familiar with.
The 100W devices are coming as part of the USB C Connector, but with all that additional power, you better believe that the computer manufacturers are going to be careful as there is a much bigger chance of fire. To even get 100W, you have to have an active cable that identifies itself to the system as one that can handle the increased power. And Apple is very involved in USB type C development.
Its about time there is a standard and I'm glad its not Apple. I'm tired of Apple's war on poor people. $19 for a phone charging cable is criminal. ... ... Gimme your iphone, I'll step on it for you.
The city of london is an independent area in the united kingdom. It isn't registered as country at the UN though.
Note that I am european. I still didn't know :).
You claim that monopolies are government-created, and that natural monopolies aren't, because a government could spend more money to remove it. I'm finding this puzzling. If monopolies are to be avoided by government action, shouldn't government go trust-busting?
I'm thinking yes. The city has a monopoly on its roads. It uses this monopoly on roads to bolster its monopoly on rights of way for utilities. Isn't using one monopoly to bolster another monopoly the definition of a violation of section 2 of the Sherman Act?