[TriLUG] TWC "Existing Customer Promotion"

[Greg Woodbury]

On 03/13/2014 01:25 PM, Brian Henning wrote:
>> last I checked, I can buy Phone/TV/Internet from at least 3 sources.
> 
> You can get /cable/ Internet from at least 3 sources?  Oh, you mean you can choose from one cable company, one DSL company, or a few Wi-MAX vendors?  Those are competing only in the barest sense of the word.
> 
>> Examples of Utilites:
>> Electricity:  Is it feasible to have 2-3 companies run power lines to your house? Nope!  
>> Cable: Is it feasible to have 2-3 companies run cable lines to your house? Nope!
>> DSL: Is it feasible to have 2-3 companies run telco lines to your house? Nope!
>> FiOS: Is it feasible to have 2-3 companies run fiber to your house? Nope!

They attain their monopoly position in cities by government mistakes.
In Durham, for example, the "contract" between TWC and the City grant
TWC an exclusive use of City infrastructures; locking out competing
providers.  One time some noise was made about the exclusiveness
provisions in the contract, and it almost got dropped.  However TWC
pulled some nasty threats out of thin air and got most of the city
council committee working on the contract to not remove and/or re-insert
the exclusiveness provisions.  (They made the threats during a closed
door meeting with the committee, which was illegal and which could not
be attended by anyone besides TW and the committee. We who were opposing
the exclusiveness provisions were locked out and not informed of the
meeting.  By the time we found out about the failure to drop the
monopoly stuff, the contract was too far into the pipeline for council
approval to be effectively stopped.)  Gubmint at its finest.
[IIRC this was in the circa 1987 renewal in Durham.]