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So government is big on trying to prevent major Monopoly, but what about the hidden one's as well? Take a look at your light companies, cable companies, phone services, water, ISP. The most hidden one is the power company and water. Were i use to live, we had APL ( arkansas power and light) now Energy, and Co-Ops. Co-ops has to buy their power from energy and lease the lines. They tell them what areas they can serve and only serve that area. Guess to keep them from taking over their customers as they are cheaper? Here in TX we have choices and the price wars keep our bills low.. Unless your in Austin and you have no choices.. Sucks as they can jack up the rates at any time for any reason.
ISP.. so DSL from the local provider or if your bless you get cable. Now some towns are trying to start their own services and now all a sudden these ISPs wants to block them from getting it? So are they going to service them now?
Water- We get water from the same source, so why are we subject to local city water mafia? Can somebody else come in and pump the same water and put in the pipes cheaper?
Public utilities are certainly not hidden monopolies. They are allowed to be monopolies because they are heavily regulated by the state. Those regulations apply to safety, service, other operating requirements and finances. They cannot raise rates without approval of the state public utility commission. Some states also regulate whether local governments can operate a service typically provided by a public utility. Cable, for example, has easements from cities and counties to use public property for their cable, and the companies pay the government for that right. Unless that agreement is exclusive, any other cable provider willing to pay for the installation of their equipment and facilities, and pay the government, could install a competing service.
It sounds like the problems you have are really with the state or local government.
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
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Originally Posted by hitpausebutton2
So government is big on trying to prevent major Monopoly, but what about the hidden one's as well? Take a look at your light companies, cable companies, phone services, water, ISP. The most hidden one is the power company and water. Were i use to live, we had APL ( arkansas power and light) now Energy, and Co-Ops. Co-ops has to buy their power from energy and lease the lines. They tell them what areas they can serve and only serve that area. Guess to keep them from taking over their customers as they are cheaper? Here in TX we have choices and the price wars keep our bills low.. Unless your in Austin and you have no choices.. Sucks as they can jack up the rates at any time for any reason.
ISP.. so DSL from the local provider or if your bless you get cable. Now some towns are trying to start their own services and now all a sudden these ISPs wants to block them from getting it? So are they going to service them now?
Water- We get water from the same source, so why are we subject to local city water mafia? Can somebody else come in and pump the same water and put in the pipes cheaper?
I am sure their are more hidden monopoly?
No, water rights are a very complicated legal process, and wars have been fought over them in the past. You cannot just go and take water from a local creek, river, or lake. Some cities now even ban collection of rainwater from your own roof. Sometimes various agencies will form an alliance to take water from the same source, and there may be several utilities drawing from different places on the same river, but they are all subject to regulation, including maximum acre-feet per year to leave enough for the fish, downstream users, and to encourage conservation. No one is going to move into even a very small city and put in all new pipes, that would be an economically fiasco. The users would have to pay 100 x more for their water for many years to recover the cost.
Public utilities are certainly not hidden monopolies. They are allowed to be monopolies because they are heavily regulated by the state. Those regulations apply to safety, service, other operating requirements and finances. They cannot raise rates without approval of the state public utility commission. Some states also regulate whether local governments can operate a service typically provided by a public utility. Cable, for example, has easements from cities and counties to use public property for their cable, and the companies pay the government for that right. Unless that agreement is exclusive, any other cable provider willing to pay for the installation of their equipment and facilities, and pay the government, could install a competing service.
It sounds like the problems you have are really with the state or local government.
So why do you see other ISPs coming and lobby against local city's trying to start up their own ISP services or any services that THEY DONT currently provide for that town. We had cablevision in our old town for decades, till sat services came in and took over. So they took the lines out of the whole town. Instead of leaving the existing lines so the city can use it. Now they want to put in new lines, and cablevision is blocking them now.. but they took out their lines.. so why block progress when they moved out. same goes with ISPs in other states doing the same thing.
Not hidden, heavily regulated to the point where the services are all but run by government agencies.
Thank God! There are many things that -- left to its own devices -- the private sector simply cannot do well. We don't want private armies, and we don't want the gargantuan waste of multiple distribution systems for what should be considered natural monopolies.
Thank God! There are many things that -- left to its own devices -- the private sector simply cannot do well. We don't want private armies, and we don't want the gargantuan waste of multiple distribution systems for what should be considered natural monopolies.
So if a town that wants better services then what the current monopoly has for them, your against them?
Yes, yes, of all the crap going on in our lives---THIS is certainly--NOT--something to lose any sleep over. What is it about the frequent rabid posts from those who appear to have little else on their plate besides the latest wowser stuff of right wing talk radio? I'm getting to the point that I'm imagining those posters hunkered down like Ted Kaczynski, wired up on their favorite fear factor while looking in every corner for new enemies.
Some people just can't accept the fact of business supremacy, and others can't see the wisdom in anything--government. Man, I'm pretty busy most days just living, who needs the constant yelping of the fear mongers, fact twisters, and bloviating bloggers who clog up the bandwidth nowadays. No one is compelled to remain in a place which is so difficult to exist in, even some Haitians are successful when escaping their plight, and where do they come? Yeah that's right they come here to the US of A, you know, that place where every thing is going to hell according to some here on CD......
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