This is why US multinationals bust their balls to get into China. They’ve never had a business environment so much to their liking!
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Information economy with only a couple providers, outdated infrastructure and some of the worst connection speeds in the civilized world?
LET THE EAGLE SOAAAARRRR
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You misunderstood me. I didn’t mean to say we should somehow turn them into the Bell System. I meant this merger will make them as dominant as Bell - so we should regulate them like Bell. Before the 1990s, the Bell System was regulated by Public Utility Commissions, who set the price of services, just like electric, gas and water. Can you imagine a panel of government and civilians doing that today?
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Well, considering that he was securing the position of head of the Wardrobe Malfunction Police, the price was probably too high. 
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No, I didn’t misunderstand you. You want to cement their position as the dominant ISP by regulating them - and by extension, excluding their competition from the market. I can absolutely imagine a panel of government and civilians setting the price of ISP services, and the thought scares the bejeezus out of me. There would no quicker way to higher prices, worse service, stagnant progress on speed, and the elimination of competition. How long do you think it would take for that board to be captured when the FCC is already pwned? And how long do you think it would be before the board’s power was used to put competitors out of business and keep new competitors from entering the market?
Hmm. Been thinking about getting a new ISP. Should I go with “Network Neutrality Not Needed Here” Verizon, or “Everything We Touch Turns To Shit” Time Warner Comcast?
Did the invisible hand of the free market just give us all the finger?
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Heh, I thought by “regulate them like Bell” @Boundegar meant chop them up into tiny little bits with an axe. He didn’t, but I do. Chop them up and make them go toe to toe with each other.
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Time Warner and Comcast usually don’t operate in the same markets; it’s pretty rare than consumers today have the option of picking one cable company over the other. The combined firm will continue to face steep competition from DirecTV and Dish Network. The interesting aspect of the proposed merger is how it will impact things like the $$ ESPN and other cable networks are able to extract for sports programming.
It’s not that there are no competitive concerns with the proposed deal… but they’re not really particularly competitive with each other today.
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Except for, you know, the vast majority of TWC and Comcast customers who live in urban areas and cannot install dishes. I have never understood this bizarre cable company monopoly that is tolerated in the US where people literally have no choice as to providers. I have lived in 8 different states and I have never had a choice of cable providers available to me.
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If it had the stones it would.
Wow, if this deal is allowed to go through we’ll really have given up even pretending to care about monopolies. On the other hand the current system is so bad maybe what we need is for it to get even worse in order to prompt a radical change.
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[nipple rubbing intensifies]
Net Neutrality is about to become that much more important impotent?
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What a deal! Now everyone in America within range of Comcast and TWC can enjoy the experience of Comcastration! Kiss those troublesome bittorrent services goodbye! Kiss high-resolution streaming video goodbye as data caps fall on us like 16-ton weights!
Seriously, I have friends who live in Comcast territory. Both of them use Verizon DSL (yuck!) or FIOS, the only competing services in that area rather than COmcast. There’s got to be a reason.
Nope, please. Please. pleading Please!
That’s not been the experience in Australia. Quite the opposite. The government set the wholesale price of cable after Telstra rolled out the national cable network, and it was keenly priced to allow competition, and it worked a treat. Except then the government kept asking Telstra to build a fibre network, and Telstra said “Hey, you know what? Fuck you!” which led us to the ongoing saga of our governments attempt to build that network themselves. If you want to melt your brain, read up on the Australian NBN.
I’m as cynical as the next corporate slave but an organisation with this much market power needs regulation, its a no-brainer.
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