RoadRunner nonsense

[Luke -Jr]

On Friday 29 February 2008, Phil Thayer wrote:
> Actually, it is not a monopoly.  A monopoly would be a company that has
> exclusive ownership of a commodity through either legal privilege,
> command of supply, concentrated action, exclusive control/possession or
> has a commodity that is controlled by that one company.  None of these
> fit what TW or Comcast have. 

TW and Comcast have exactly that in their regions.

> None of them have exclusive control of the internet.

They have exclusive control of cable internet access in their regions.

> If you look back at AT&T before it was broken up into the "baby Bell"
> companies, that was a monopoly.  If you had a complaint with AT&T then,
> you were told that was the way it was and if you didn't like it "use
> another telephone company, oh wait, there isn't one, too bad for you,"
> click (not even a bye or have a nice day.)  They did have exclusive
> rights and privileges and had command of the supply and infrastructure.
> That's why they were broken up into smaller companies.

That's how it is with cable internet. There is no other choice. If you get 
Earthlink Cable, the only differerence is your email address-- you still get 
connectivity from and pay Time Warner.